the knives have been out for her for years. heaven forbid that she exercises free speech. being attacked by al Sharpton is a compliment
As Amber Ruffin, brilliant writer for the Seth Meyers show, observed: white people don't get to decide what's racist.
In her cringe-worthy attempts to apologize, Ms. Kelly seemed to be saying she's been slow to learn how to be p.c. Maybe, but she's definitely mastered how to be disingenuous.
1
This is what my husband says about this situation; (he refuses to go on any social media sights):
"NBC should be critiqued for losing a chance and Megyn Kelly should be applauded for having a teaching moment about institutionalized racism. NBC too blind to accept at face value what Megyn Kelly has experienced in her life to explain where she was coming from? Was her environment so protected that she was not aware of what others seeming innately knew about Minstrel shows?"
It was never presented as a racial situation. When Al Jolson dressed up in blackface it was not explained as racist. After all he was a Jew and probably the last person who would be racist. It was musical for him. It was just how things were presented back then and it really wasn't discussed in racial terms although maybe in the back of our subconscious minds felt like it could be but it didn't come up.
2
Very surprised they’re surprised at her comments. Look what she said when she was on Faux News. What did they think they were getting?
2
This is an interesting discussion. On one level, I'm glad it happened, as I suspect that a whole lot of folks have not much knowledge about the history of blackface and others a bit more, but not enough to fully understand how it resonates amongst people of color. To the extent that the knowledge base of a large number of people is improved by this, it's a good thing. I confess that, when I attended a Halloween party back in the '80s, that was themed "1936" and I saw a number of men in blackface as Jesse Owens, who famously won gold medals at the Olympics that year in defiance of Hitler's cult of aryan supremacy, it didn't occur to me that these attendees were doing anything racist. I saw them as saluting a great american athlete and everything he stood for. My date and I showed up as Eleanor & Franklin. Were we being insensitive to disabled people? I thought we were saluting two of America's finest political figures. If NBC dumps Ms. Kelly, will it be because of her comments or because her ratings are terrible and she is a bad fit for the show she is doing? Both? All of these are interesting questions. However one comes down on all this, it's catnip for the real, live, actual, avowed racist currently in the Oval Office, which is the worst thing about it, if you ask me...
4
My wife went to school in Albany like Megyn twenty years earlier, and she's never seen a live person in blackface in her life. Draw your own conclusions.
3
Please do me a favor and advise when insensitive, mindless and ignorant individuals, with Fox News pedigree are fired when they show themselves for whom they are. In this case, Ms. Kelly should be fired and sued because she is clueless as to the history and impact of negative stereotypes. The firing of Ms. Kelly seems like a job for NBC, the Twitter-verse, Facebook land, etc.
Imagine for the moment that if the roles were reversed and people of color dressed as KKK members and argued its Halloween. Or worse, imagine for the moment, one were to resurrect the anti-sematic horrors of WW2 and argue its Halloween. I could go on and on, but I really should not have to. Bottom line, if Halloween is the American version of a 'history' lesson, then its time for all Americans to watch the History Channel, 24/7 until they finally understand what this country is all about.
1
If you guys listen to all comedians you will understand that Kelly's comment was not even close. Sorry, but I don't find Megyn's comment racially motivated. It's a personal opinion and she has the right to express that opinion. She's a journalist and has access to free speech.
9
The comments are so unforgiving. I remember some foolish commentator trying to insist Mrs. Clooney share a drink before an award show. The commentator was ignorant and never apologized. In this case someone you thought was more sophisticated Or thoughtful apologized. C’est ce fait
It's a good thing few thinking people remember or watch NBC. The issue is not about someone named Megyn Kelly. The issue is not about using the word 'blackface.' The unspoken issue is people are no longer allowed to think/speak in any way that could (somehow?) offend aggrieved, victimhood, entitlement sensibilities of America's faux 'protected class.' People need to lighten up, laugh it off, move on to things of substance. Moreover, America cannot afford to become infantilized by pc childlike blather. There are actually important things to acknowledge, discuss. Did I mention no one cares what talking heads utter, nor should they..
5
We, as a nation, have lost our minds.
The media needs to focus on 45 who created a hostile environment; the media needs to focus by NOT covering every tweet, rally, speech, and exhalation of hot air he expels.
Kelly made a mistake.
Interesting to see how NBC has $69mil to cough up to get rid of her but wouldn't cover Ronan Farrow's investigations on abuse.
Incredible.
7
I am alarmed by the amount of NYT Picks for insightful comments that each boil down a shoulder shrug of Kelly's comments. Whether or not individuals choose to see what the big deal is is immaterial to the comment being insensitive and racist. The collective sighs and eye rolls ("here we go again") of being exasperated around culture is sickening. While I prefer racists to be overt, rather than covert, hearing people say racist things and have others defend the statement by alleging overreacting is painful every time it happens. And I have a lifetime of experience dealing with racism.
4
Finally I’m done with the incredibly biased Today Show
I’ve been watching sing i was young with my parents (early1960’s). It was transparent that Guthrie, Kotb and Roker were not “fond” of Megyn Kelly...
Last few years ive only watched the first hour of Today
And looked forward to Kelly’s show which has gotten really good over the year. Since learning she’s been fired i took Today off my series recording and will go with CBS. They seem most unbiased (?). I’ve never watched CBS or GMA...so I dont know...
So Sorry to lose this show.....
1
I grew up in the 1950's in Portland Maine in an all white neighborhood and went to Catholic school and Catholic high school. BOTH church and High school had "Minstrel Shows" as fund raisers every year. They consisted of whole choruses in blackface and black gloves singing and swaying to Swannee river , Carolina in the mornin , etc. Also included were "Endmen," who sat six on each side of Mr. Interpolated who fielded stupid and racist questions to these clowns. Call it satire. Call it racism. Call it good fun. It made money for the parish and parochial school !
And the money stayed in the white church and school. No black parishioners or students. No donations to poor Blacks in the city.
1
Isn't all this STUPID ?
Well, if you're going to pay a marginal "star" of normal but not special intelligence over $15 million per year for a few hours a day, then I guess you've bought into this whole craziness of sudden death for a few clearly questionable--but also defensible as concerned but NON-RASCIST opinion.
Just nutso!
Do we the viewers--the "consumers" of this non-content---really care?
Kelly's bad manners and insensitivity on display.
Yes, appearances.
In this era we're in now, lets start talking about how women are presented on TV news. Another commenter cited this--cocktail dresses and highheels for weatherladies. And announcers.
In the past, I remember when women hosts, and pundit commentators wore more business like attire, befitting their function on the shows--- to announce the news of the day, or comment and analyze our politics for the public. Sure, they wore attractive clothes, makeup and hair styles, but not like today--- overly glamorized by professional groomers like a movie star in many instances.
The contrast to the men is blatant -- women sitting there with bare arms, even in February. Some show their thighs sitting in short dresses. They sit next to men in suites with their arms and whole body ALWAYS covered--only their faces and hands show.
Thus women are displayed, men are covered up.
So unconsciously, which one do the viewers take more seriously, for their speech and opinions?
Maybe the men should start wearing short sleeved shirts, no ties. Or sleeveless low necked t shirts. I mean, don't men have attractive, muscled arms and hairy chests that women viewers would admire? Let them compete for display. Of course the men would protest any such suggestion!
Not professional, not dignified? But ok for the women?
I'm looking for the media to start discussing this gulf in how male/females dress in TV news.
2
I will just have to go back to watching Eddie Murphy in whiteface making comic portrayals of elderly Jewish men.
Blackface portrayals are inappropriate if they exaggerate stereotypical afro-american features. Otherwise, how would you go out for Halloween as Obama?
Next, we will be banning Al Jolson video with him singing Mammy.
9
Well hmmmm. Things get cloudy fast. I have an adopted Chinese daughter and I'm a lot more sensitive to racial bigotry now than I ever was but I've always felt that the "weatherman" (without a degree in meteorology) Al Roker, totally owes his position to being a minority. I see nothing in him that merits his being a mainstay on a national program. Probably a nice guy but not really ready for prime time.
Having said that I always thought Matt Lauer was way over-rated too. What do I know.
4
We are products of our experiences and backgrounds. The effect of destroying a person over an insensitive remark is tribal.
The American tribalist, Donald Trump, speaks incessantly as Ms. Kelly (rarely) except he has no conscience that makes him apologize or change his speech. I suggest Ms. Kelley is on probation for such errors, and may not be able to increase her ratings in the future as well. Accordingly, her presence at NBC is probably not destined to continue.
Ms Kelly was at FOX precisely because she had the background that made such insensitive remarks seem normal. We drive such folks (who have a change of heart) into the darkness of Trumpism when we choose to demand purity, and fail to understand forgiveness. The expression "Fool me once, your fault. Fool me twice, my fault" should guide our reactions.
We "who have not sinned" must agree that a religion of PC purity is no better that the actions of the unabashedly crude and mean spirited "Trump Base".
5
Kelly made a mistake, her colleagues overreacted and she apologized. In a divisive time like this, we need to show forgiveness and decency instead of more divisiveness.
I don't know the full comments but from what I read here, she just described a fact back in the less progressive and less divisive 80s and also a time when African American TV and sports personalities really thrived.
I also want to mind all of the readers that my issue with PC is its double-standard. By the PC standard, it is wrong for white kids to impersonate Black characters on Halloween, it is wrong for Cardi B to rap certain words. However, African Americans impersonate white people ALL THE TIME and are free from PC police. Is this really fair?
5
@PCUNPC
Insisting upon framing it as a political correctness issue--and worse, claiming "double standards"-- misses the whole point.
When someone with the power to offend a person or people also claims the right to determine whether that person or people should or should not be offended, they are appropriating power from the other person or people. It is this power theft that is the essence of racism, sexism, ageism, etc.
Positing a double standard because white people aren't "allowed" to be offended is actually a way of reasserting that the dual power--to offend and to determine what's an offence--should stay where it is.
2
@PCUNPC
Very nicely worded rationalization.
The PC charge --- used when you have no other argument.
It's the whites who are being victimized!
Typical Trump trash twaddle.
Show forgiveness?---so all this will go on. And on.
And on.
3
I don't see any racism in this. She was making a third-person remark about how something was tolerated back then but isn't now. She wasn't endorsing or excusing it at all, she was just surmising about what the culture was like when she was a kid, before she was old enough to understand the deeper ramifications.
3
We need to call things what they are. This is especially critical for newspapers. At issue in this sad incident is not that Megyn Kelly made "racially insensitive" remarks, as your article states in the lead paragraph. At issue is that a person who could make such a remark in 2018 has a character defect so severe she shouldn't be let near a microphone.
3
This woman should go back to her roots, AKA Fox TV.
4
She's a terrible "journalist." She's also a heartless racist, who wants black children to think Santa Claus (who doesn't exist) is white. NBC should be condemned fro hiring her in the first place, and now the only decent thing to do is fire her and pay her out. Her place is clearly at FOX, where her crazy opinions and lack of talent are eclipsed by the crazier and less talented folks in the FOX fold. Mediocre is much better than the norm at FOX. On network television, her obvious shortcomings are revealed rather starkly. So, she's mediocre at best and a racist jerk. Sounds like she needs to disappear.
6
This is what you get Megyn. Why didn't you stay at FOX? Hope you had your fill at liberal NBC. You just can't fit into their extreme liberal culture.
As an FYI, take a look at 'Black Like You' by John Strausbaugh, which IMHO is better than the NY Times review suggests:
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/books/review/16light.html
In addition, there are several books on Bert Williams that are well worth reading and provide insight about the culture of the times in which he lived.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Williams
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/bert-williams/
http://black-face.com/Bert-Williams.htm
And it's just not blackface. Scroll down to the bottom of the page on the black-face.com site for links to sites focusing on other racial and racist stereotypes.
Is she smart enough to be ignorant?
1
I understand the hurtful, insulting, despicable history of white people putting on “blackface” to make fun of black people. But I do not understand why normal, non-racist people in 2018 cannot wear a costume of someone who isn’t Caucasian. When that actress was savaged last year for dressing up as Suzanne from Orange is the New Black, along with a bunch of friends dressed as all the other characters, it just made no sense to me. I don’t know where we should draw the line, exactly, but I’d suggest it be where someone could reasonably be suspected of mocking the race or culture of the character they’re dressed as. My daughter (or son!) can be Princess Mulan for Halloween while appreciating and respecting Chinese people and their culture, just as a Hispanic child can dress as a princess from a German fairy tale (sleeping beauty, Snow White).
This is ABSOLUTELY part of the problem progressives have: being so eager to be PC that we make fools of ourselves and confound the rest of the country. Let’s focus on making real changes to and educating people about the real systemic racism in our society.
9
@MRO, I believe you're missing the point. To suggest Kelly's flippant, racially insensitive remarks re: blackface are a progressive problem generated by over PC-ness is to deflect from the real problem, which in this case is the trivializing of blackface. Blackface was LITERALLY the face of institutionalized racism, the dehumanization, and terrorism of black folk during the Jim Crow era. The pain and adverse impacts black folk experienced over the course of Jim Crow are still felt today. To challenge current systemic racism in our country, we have to look at our ugly past. Blackface is a salient and painful reminder to black folk of the gross injustices and suffering during Jim Crow and it should never be trivialized.
Re: your comment about Julianne Hough, I don't think people would have a problem with children (of any ethnicity) dressing up as Snow White or Mulan and I agree we must draw a line when we suspect someone mocking a character’s race/culture when dressing up. However, blackface by definition falls into that delineation, which makes it not ok, ever. When thinking about dressing up, just leave blackface out of it. It’s that simple.
I am no fan of Meghan Kelly and having said that up front, I believe she made an honest, ignorant mistake. Yes her remark was racist, and it was made out of ignorance rather than malevolence. So...it’s a learning moment, for her and for others like her who may make an unintelligent remark that is racist. She has apologized, she has heard from her peers. NOW, give her a chance to continue her learning rather than stomp her down. There is more pure, vile hatred out there that demands our attention and I do not believe Meghan Kelly is in any way in that category.
15
@Susie
I agree, but let her learn OFF the airwaves.
5
I know what you mean. A popular director produces a film with an old anti-Jewish comment and no one and the liberal press comment on it. Beyoncé’s husband has a lyric within anti-Jewish Comment, in most of the press let it pass. Racial insensitivity it’s tiresome,But poor taste and ignorance is a long way from Nazis dancing on a synagogue steps in our own country.
@Susie I agree with everything you wrote. Meghan Kelly grew In an era as I did where blackface was historically an artsy musical event. My husband's 5th grade teacher had a minstrel show and there was no obvious racial overtones intimated. There were no black kids in his class and very few if any in the whole school. It was just a musical fun thing to do his fifth grade teacher thought; this was in 1955. Megyn is one of my favorite commentators at least she was on Fox News, but since she left a have only watched her maybe twice. I don't watch "regular" TV very often.. I don't think she should have left Fox but I figured she would be the voice of reason on the more liberal NBC station. And I saw her the other day and that is what I I saw her doing. NBC is not doing everyone a favor if they fire her and don't stand up for her. They do miss a very teachable moment and they will lose a very good show hostess
1
Do black people wonder if its ok to dress up as a mindless talking head?
3
I have always considered it passing strange that NBC ever spent two seconds on hiring her. But in the same way I considered it beyond reason that they brought us the Amazing Donald Trump. Whata talent! But you can't win 'em all. So SAD.
1
So Megyn Kelly gets all the criticism she deserves for her racist statements while meantime The Today Show is giving a free platform to the leader of a white supremacist hate organization to spout his views in the form of an “interview” that was nothing more than a prolonged ad. No one said anything about that. I guess as long as its couched as an interview it must somehow be legitimate.
What hypocrisy!! Immediately after its leader’s appearance on the Today Show, the organization reported an upsurge in calls requesting information about how to join. Great job, Today Show - free advertising time for hate groups all sanctioned by the same folks who are (rightfully) appalled by Megyn Kelly’s remarks which come from stupidity not, one assumes, an overt recruitment effort for an organization of tone-deaf racist but very beautiful entertainment broadcasters.
This interview was not hard news, it was a “feature“ piece. Not giving this guy’s repulsive anti-democratic hate speech free exposure to an audience of millions is not an abrogation or infringement of free speech. It’s responsible broadcasting.
Isn’t it interesting what a big fuss is being made over Megyn Kelly while this interview goes by without a peep? Makes you wonder how much NBC and other media really care about the actual issues at hand, and how much is about image, publicity and a good story featuring a beautiful blonde?
22
@Lin Kaatz Chary. I read what she said and I don't think she was being racist at all.. just not PC as so many are today. When I was a young child, years ago, I doubt I would have felt dressing up in black face was nothing more than an historical artsy craftsy. I actually don't remember in the 50s or 60s or 70s that there were those who dressed up like that for Halloween. I did not feel her statement was accusatory. It just needed more discussion as to her experience and what she meant. She doesn't deserve to be ostracized for this. I've heard a lot worse on other shows that are downright racist. What about Her 1st Amendment right for free speech which seems to be at the top of the news these days.
1
I still don't understand why they ever hired this ignorant lightweight.
1
Once a racist, always a racist, apparently. This latest episode is evidence that she is spectacularly uninformed and intellectually lazy — and thereby unqualified to be on the air of any responsible news/information outlet. NBC, of course, is free to hire her, but they and she cannot expect those paying attention to ignore and call out her stupidity and faulty moral compass.
1
It seems NBC was just waiting for a reason to fire Kelly. She actually said the truth on air about Ronan Farrow, Weinstein, Lauer and Brokaw. That is unacceptable to NBC. Clearly they only want to have puppets they can control, so the machine is moving fast to get rid of Kelly. Now just watch... all the sheep will start bleating that “This was acceptable 35 years ago” = racism.
NBC covered for a few nasty molesters for years. Why encourage diversity of thought now?
1
Who could possibly be surprised at this? A non-journalist from Fox who got by on being blond on TV and not much else.
You hire a racist from the most racist "news" organization in the world and then pretend to be shocked and chagrined when she's racist.
NBC wanted a piece of the right-wing audience (kinda like the NYT with its loving tributes to Nazis and white supremacists) and (unlike the Times) are now finding that jumping on the fascist bandwagon has its costs.
We all know that Trump uses the "fake news" accusation to smear those who don't give him favorable coverage but the reason it resonates with tens of millions of people and is effective is because there's an element of Truth in it.
All we need do is look at the Times' own handling of the Trump server/Alfa Bank story and its backpedaling after the fact for a standout example of fake news.
$100 this comment doesn't see the light of day.
1
I fail to understand what anyone sees/saw in this woman. Go back to Fox-it's a much better fit for the likes of you.
3
Seems to me that Tamron Hall is getting her revenge without ever having to say a word about Ms. Kelly. I hope NBC has to beg Tamron to come back after Megyn's show is cancelled -- and that they have to offer her a great deal of money.
3
I am not African American. In fact, I wasn't even born here. With the amount of education Kelly had, but how can she be so tone deaf and ignorant of American history? But it's not just Kelly but others who have shown utter lack of ... empathy. It's the insistence that Confederate flag represents merely Southern pride and culture, completely ignoring slavery being part of that Southern history. It's people who dress up as Nazi for Halloween party. This is not a matter of being politically correct and suppressing free speech. Some opinions are just plain stupid.
21
Wouldn't it be great if our changing climate also changed the pigmentation of our skin? Maybe to a type of Green like what happened on Mars? Then we might focus on bigger issues, like saving the planet or what's left of it?
1
Hang on. Her comments about blackface were indeed insensitive, but I can not abide this:
"She also alienated some “Today” show colleagues with her coverage of in-house harassment scandals involving Matt Lauer, the former “Today” anchor, and Tom Brokaw, the former NBC anchor, ...."
Too bad for those "alienated" colleagues (read: crybabies.) Kelly is a journalist, and as such, was reporting on some pretty huge scandals that needed airing - too bad if it happened on her employer's real estate. I applaud her for discussing sexual harassment at NBC out in the open.
The PC police culture is absolutely ridiculous. I'm not a fan of Megyn, but what she said was true. Many people, especially kids, did blackface during Halloween or costume parties. It was not uncommon, and white people didn't really do it to be racist. Sure, it was insensitive, but many people didn't realize it because they didn't live in a diverse neighborhood. For example, if you read Christine Blasey Ford's yearbook, there were kids who did blackface and an afro during one of their Costume parties. Today, we realize how insensisitive this is, but back then many people didn't.
2
Megyn Kelly has a history of insensitive and controversial remarks, especially when she was at Fox. Can't forget the case where a white officer used excessive force on a skinny 15 year old black girl and Megyn said on National TV something along the lines of "she was no saint". I just could not believe what I was hearing.
With this particular case, I don't think what she said was worse than all the statements she made when she was at Fox. Perhaps, I don't see race the way an African American would since I did not grow up in the United States. I watched the clip, and it just seemed as maybe she was playing devils advocate in the discussion. But because of her past, it's hard to take anything she says as simply that. I bet her history of racial insensitivity had something to do with this.
If she wasn't so obnoxious and insulting towards black people in the past, perhaps her apology may have been accepted.
24
@NU If Megyn Kelly was a liberal her apology would be accepted. That is a fact.
1
@NU Can you be specific about what insulting an obnoxious things she has said in the past? Just to put that out here doesn't explain anything.
1
Kelly's crime was to think she could actually express an opinionn is the PC atmosphere at NBC. The NBC 'names' that immediately dumped on here were predictably partisan and vile in their vituperative comments. There is reasonable room for people to discuss the PC things that keep cropping up, as we raise the bar higher and higher for perfection as humans. To me, and others like me, one can 'change' the color of one's skin without negative overtones. If one is doing it and acting in an offensive manner, that's racist. But if one is doing it simply as part of a costume (such as the Ross action), then that is not racist or harmful. It's not big deal. Were I to see a whiteface George Washington, I'd not think it racist; I'd think it funny. People need to lighten up. And the PC crows at NBC is just...well...stupid.
6
You can take the commentator out of Fox but you can't take Fox out of the commentator. NBC knew what she was like when they hired her: she is what she is but maybe she can still learn a thing or two. At least she gives her colleagues cover to appear more understanding than they otherwise might. Whatever happens, with a 17 million dollar contract she won't ever have to worry about where her next meal is coming from. If the apology was sincere and not simply pro forma it would not be PC to reject it. Not every trespass should be fatal.
3
...the media is out of control
2
Thus spake Donald J. Trump.
In the early 1950's the local Lions Club would put on a holiday show at the high school auditorium for all us poor country folk. I think we went to get the free oranges and pop corn balls for the kids. One of their most popular acts was the entire chorus and the actors on stage, made up in black face, singing and dancing to some tune I can no longer remember. But, I can still hear the applause. It wasn't until I was in high school that I realized the pain that the small black community, living at the other end of the patch town, felt about these things and how they never attended. And unfortunately there are still folks around here that don't get it.
42
@Robert Shaffer
Things Change!!
Lions Clubs in those days were male only. No longer. Things have changed. International Lions include people of all colors, religions, nationalities, and backgrounds. While I (a current Lion) am saddened that you recognized such insensitivity from your past only by High School, I am hopeful that your change of heart is, by now, reflected in your 1950's local Lions Club also. As a point of reference, at age 8 in the 1950's in Bayonne, NJ, I was summarily dismissed from the Cub Scouts at the Local YMCA. My crime, My parents were Jewish. Things change. I was a Scout Leader in a Catholic sponsored Boy Scout Troop recently.
Things Change.
1
Kelly should never have left Fox News. Her "blackface" musings would have been accepted there. Her attempt to enter the mainstream have been dismal, to say the least. Once she's ousted at NBC, her next logical step will be a position with the Trump administration where she'll fit in beautifully.
33
What about giving Jenna Bush Hager an opportunity to take on this hour with a rotating guests of commentators. She has proven herself over the years at Today. Megyn Kelly Today only became tolerable when the first 15 minutes were dedicated to a four-person round table...but the rest of the show just falls completely flat.
Perhaps bringing Hoda & Kathie Lee to the third hour time slot will revive the block of programming?
@AMD
What about bringing back Tamryn Hall?
3
Doesn’t anyone learn history anymore? Stupidity reigns on so much network talk, and show choices,that is is apparent that owners know their audience. What do you watch?
1
Eddie Murphy was made up as a white guy (aka "whiteface") in a very funny SNL skit some years ago. Was that offensive? Or is it different when it's the other way around?
I know: There is a long, sad history involving blackface. Will we ever get beyond that? Ever?
2
Even white Santa would not go to a Halloween party in blackface.
3
Megyn Kelly can't help who she is.
This is obviously how she was reared and she doesn't know any better.
Her comments make me this of that cook from Georgia, Paula Deen. Paula readily admitted that she had been reared that way by her father.
She didn't know she was being a bigot with her words and actions.
With Megyn Kelly, who is a protege' of Fox News, what did NBC expect?
2
You can take the girl out of Fox but you can't take the Fox out of the girl.
1
Fox alumnus opportunist roots showing like the brown hair under the blond. Never was a fan to say the least.
2
She's just being her tacky, unrestrained self.
Think first, then speak, Megan.
2
Dear NBC:
You lie down with dogs (or talent hired from Fox "News"), you get up with fleas.
4
You can take the blonde out of FOX, but you really can't take the FOX out of the blonde. Gee, who could have foreseen THIS ?????
4
She's not a journalists, she's an incurable exponent of White Nationalist Racism.
She previously said Christ (a Middle Easterner) was White, etc.
Very simple solution, don't pander to an audience.
FIRE HER.
1
I'm the same age as Megyn Kelly. I dressed up every year for Halloween. Never once did I or anyone I ever encountered on October 31st dress in blackface, nor did anyone I know think that was acceptable. I truly don't know what she means when she says it was OK when we were kids. It certainly was not.
4
Megyn Kelly is my absolute favorite show on TV. Period. I DVR her every morning to watch in the evenings when I get home. She is not racist. Unfortunately, she said something that sounds incredibly racist when you only hear an eight-second clip of the full conversation. She CERTAINLY does not deserve to be fired over this. My Lord. I can’t lose my daily hour of relaxation while at the same time being on an intellectually and emotionally charged roller coaster. The show is both thought provoking and tear evoking.
Megyn is one of the smartest women on TV, but I love watching her because she’s got a way of treating every single person on her show and in her audience (although I’ve never been) as her total equal. She doesn’t act better than or smarter than anyone, which I hate. She’s hilarious without trying (I swear I laugh through half of every show, depending on the topics of course). And she comes off as the most genuine, down to earth person-someone I’d love to sit down with and have lunch... to pick her brain, discuss political issues, talk to her about how exactly she got to where she’s at, and to just hang out.
Megyn Kelly fills a niche that no one else does. TV needs her.
15
What has happened to the media?, no one can say anything without you making the worse of it, Megyn Kelly meant no harm in what she said and I would say she meant nothing racial in her remarks. You the news media has made it Racial, I doubt Megyn has a prejudice bone in her body, NBC does not deserve someone like her. This political and moral correctness crap has gone on to long, YOU the media needs to stop it, YOU started it and you have created a division between the races that will never heal and for Al Roker and others to turn on their own network colleague is a shame and disgrace and a shame to NBC news. Al knows she meant nothing by what she said but just had to get something else started. God bless you Megyn Kelly
2
@Jack Jenkins Your comment shows your complete ignorance of US history, particularly African-American history. The history of blackface is a stain of our culture. Blackface was used to depict African Americans as stupid, animals, sub-human. It is intertwined with the Jim Crow era. Jim Crow was in fact a blackface character. This comment is as serious as saying that dressing up as Hitler or Stalin “for laughs” is harmless. And if she did not mean anything, then she ought to have kept her mouth shut. Words do have meaning.
5
Covering sexual harassment at NBC should be fair game for Ms Kelly. I suspect that's what is upsetting them. And winning a diminished ratings game with Cable and social media now in place may be chasing after rainbows. Given her clashes with Trump, and the open sexual harassment promotion environment at Fox, you would think she would have been given a news beat at NBC to cover him.
Nothing wrong with her questioning of Jane Fonda. And her Santa Claus comments-- she should go right to Black Jeopardy, which is the best SNL comedy sketch since Chris Farley. (this whole article is about "White People")
1
Please let this be he beginning of a general, nationwide program of De-Foxification,
5
Poor Megyn, 'what world doth I live in?' Being tone deaf and ignorant from living in a bubble does have its disadvantages.
2
This PC wave is ridiculous. This is probably why Trump was elected and will be reelected in 2020.
If my 8 year old son loves boxing, and he wanted to be Floyd Mayweather for Halloween, do I have to tell him, "No son, you can't be Floyd Mayweather because you're not black and that would be racist."
My son would probably react, "Well that's stupid."
44
@Nicolas Gutierrez Do you even know the history of blackface? Did you know that Jim Crow was a blackface character? Why do you think that era was named after a blackface character? Read a little, please. This is a terrible false equivalence.
6
@Nicolas Gutierrez
You can be Floyd Mayweather without changing your skin color by wearing his boxing outfit. As a parent I would think you were smarter than what you wrote here.
If memory serves me right Prince Harry as a young man wore a Nazi outfit to a Halloween party and it was carried on the front page of the NY Daily News, the Queen wasn't laughing at it and he quickly gave an apology for his ignorance surrounding WW two and the lasting effect it had on the people of England and the world. Blackface like Nazi's or using the terminology Nationalism is not a laughing matter.
Maybe a moment of adult reflection and thinking might make you a better parent to your child since your role is not to accept the answers of an eight year old but to explain to him why it would be offensive to people of other races.
However, I forgot that reflection is not a word in our vocabulary anymore. Just say and do what I want to do no matter the consequences.
When you know better you should do better. Ms. Kelly is a pathetic character because she knew better and was pushing the envelope to see how far she could bend the rules.
8
@Nicolas Gutierrez Your son can dress up as Floyd Mayweather but he should not put on a black face. period. The history of people, actors, etc using blackface to play out racist stereotypes continues to impact the African American community.
5
once a racist . always a racist; her Foxie news persona out in all its' inglorious shame. She and Steve Bannon and the racist in chief are fellow Travelers and should have no place in American Society and certainly not direct players in our democratic society.
4
I'm no fan of Ms. Kelly - she's not a journalist, but also not a complete ideologue, she mostly represent herself, but not in a way that she's all integrity - but this is ridiculous: these comments are wrong, but in context of talking about our past sins it's an admission that in the past bad things were done without any conscience of wrongdoing, so now we know.
Blackface issue is a serious manifestation of racism, and no comment is trifle, but we should also be able to talk about it and discuss it in the right frame - why was it accepted to begin with, and tolerated for such a long time - and it does bring awareness when you mention it that it was accepted only yesterday as "good fun."
But if she's fired over this it will only make her as martyr - and she's go back to her right wing fold not wounded but justified.
As someone here mentioned already - if she needs to be fired because of her bad ratings, make that an issue. Not these comments. It also trivializes the issue of blackface itself, which is a disservice to the greater cause of fighting racism.
3
Megyn Kelly said some awful disgusting things when she worked for FOX News for more than ten years. I was appalled when she was hired by NBC. Just looking at her you can see she is a cold, insensitive person. What on earth were you thinking? And, why on earth would you pay her or anybody $17 million dollars a year? The whole story is horrific and stupid and disgusting! Fire her now. She's a meanie!
4
I'm sorry but you are really over reacting.
I have a bi-racial son and I back MK. I have a hard time finding any thing wrong in what she said.
It was honest and now you want to fake it.
Focus on Trump, he is the one spreading poison in our
Country.
49
A leopard doesn’t change its spots. Ms. Kelly tried to leverage a bit of good P.R. she got during the 2016 presidential debate into a better salary. She didn’t do something “right”. She benefited from a slur cast by Trump. NBC fell for her charade and hoped to benefit from her one moment of good PR by not properly vetting her before putting her pivotal on-air positions. At least, NBC has the wisdom now to take her off-air.
3
Santa Claus is "white" and it is "o.k. to put on blackface as long as you are doing a character"...
And this person earns $17 milllion dollars a year???
I think Megan Kelly is ready to run for president.
3
I get the criticism over the insensitivity of Megyn Kelly's remarks. But it needs to be both ways. There was not a peep over the Wynans brother's movie "White Chicks" where the brothers portrayed two white females with white face. It was viewed as simply being funny. Yet the Housewife's star was criticized for doing the exact same thing in blackface.
Seems familiar to the fact that nothing is said when a black person uses the N word but all hell is raised if a white person does so. It seems to me that these actions should be considered wrong no matter who or what race is saying or acting in these matters.
5
@Mind boggling Not the same. Blackface was a tool to depict African Americans as subhuman. Jim Crow was a blackface character. The power imbalance is staggering.
1
@EML
Do you really think that the housewife had that in mind when she dressed up like Dianna Ross could it have been simply someone she really admired and liked listening to while growing up?
So she should only be limited to admiring the likes of Celine Dion?
Good gawd, isn't it past time for her to just go away?! :/
3
Where did Megyn Kelly grow up?! I grew up in the whitest, conservative suburb you could think of and am white, Irish-Catholic. I am 15 years older than Megyn and even back then anyone, child or adult, who dressed in black face was recognized as racist. No one would have thought that someone was in “character”. Everyone would know that it was an attempt to mock black people. Megyn Kelly is indulging in revisionist history. There is enough of that elsewhere, we don’t need it on NBC.
49
I'm an African American woman. I'm far more offended by the fake PC crusaders who are quick to make a big deal about insensitive, but otherwise harmless comments made by celebrities or public figures. These are same people who have done little to nothing to address real issues of systemic, and hostile racism. This type of unnecessary vilification is not helpful.
Btw, Dave Chapelle made a fortune playing characters in whiteface on his show for comedy central in the early 2000s. I may be wrong, but I don't recall this much controversy. But if a white person talks about putting on dark makeup for a Halloween costume the social justice police want them ostrisized from society. This is absurd.
If the network wants to fire Megan Kelly because her show sucks and the ratings are low, then they should just do that. Hiding behind the outrage over her comments is just wrong.
117
@wcdessertgirl Nicely said; your voice is one of reason. I'm afraid we're headed towards a national insanity.
5
@wcdessertgirl
Agreed. Could not have been said better.
5
@wcdessertgirl Dave Chapelle was a comedian, not a so-called newscaster. I agree with NBC's decision and I am 71. I marched for those civil rights.
8
Sorry, there is nothing wrong with blackface. It is not racially insensitive. If I choose to be a princess, alien, or blackface, it is just a costume. It does not demean black people, it celebrates them. Why don't you people obsess over something else that is important and meaningful?
74
@No NO, you don't get to decide that. Read a bit about the history of blackface before you make such an unnecessarily defiant comment. If you can't look at a list that contains the options "princess, alien, blackface" and understand how two of those choices are harmless while the third carries the weight of our racist history then...I don't know.
It would be nice if we lived in a world where an entire race of people hadn't been oppressed over centuries the way that black people have, but we don't live in that world.
It's simple. Don't wear blackface and don't condone it. This doesn't require you to *do* anything, and it doesn't alter your life in any way. Your restraint, however, could make a big difference to somebody else. Is it so hard to just be kind and respect others? Call it "grace" if you like.
21
Jen: I'm eighty. Honestly although I am a curious reader and always have been I don't think I ever read anything about blackface being so vile. Maybe it is and was but some of us just didn't know it was such a bad thing. Raised four children and no one ever wanted that as a costume for Halloween, but if they had maybe I would have said ok. I don't think I am racist either, not in that sense, but all these "suits" staggering around holding their hearts, I wonder if they have ever said a racist thing in their lives.
So you’re saying Black people are the same as aliens and fairytale princesses, just a costume. So all these black people you see walking around are every day are just in a skin costume? How often do you dress up like that? You really know better but I suspect you prefer to smirk your way through life.
9
She is not that pretty. Beauty is more than blonde hair and a tiny nose. Attitude of a spoiled bratt.
2
So Megyn became a hero when she went toe to toe with #FakePresident. Another pretty, blonde white lady, and the networks went into a frenzy to get her.
Did they not ever watch her on Fox? I remember her back then. She was and is the ugliest pretty woman in TV Land.
5
Almost 6.5 years have gone by, and it never ceases to amaze me how NBC hires or retains ticking time bombs as journalist / anchors, but they "throw under the bus" the classy ones.
#CurseOfAnnCurry
8
Beer summit.
2
It's all in how you say it. Let me ask the readers whether anyone would think the following is offensive:
"My little boy is crazy about Will Smith. He has Will Smith posters all over his room. Will Smith is his hero. He wanted to dress up as his hero for Halloween but I told him he couldn't because we live in a period where that's not okay. Isn't that sad?"
8
The kid can dress as Agent J. No makeup needed.
Glad I could help. Have a blessed day!
3
@NLG Would you allow your kid to wear a swastika? Read about blackface and Jim Crown. It is not just a question of skin color.
3
@NLG
Tell you what I told another parent, your child can dress up as Will Smith without putting on make up. If you cant figure that out what is sad, that as a parent you have no creativity.
While your son enjoys Will Smith why don't you make it a moment to learn about American racism :slavery, lynching's, lack of good medical care etc. living in the ghettos because white neighborhoods didn't want to rent to minorities. Think of Trump family
So sad your still missing the point of Ms. Kelly and her statements.
1
Megyn Kelly was a ‘get’ for NBC after she left FOX or so they thought. Her ratings haven’t measured up and that’s will be the determining factor as to whether or not she remains on the air. This tempest will simply be the excuse to terminate.
The talk show format wasn’t a good fit from day one and from the looks of the faux camaraderie with the Today show cast, she was never going to gel. Sometimes it’s hard to fake that which is so obvious. The NBC executives are waking up to that cold, hard and expensive fact now.
11
After having read Ms. Kelly's comments I agree with those who not only don't find them offensive but believe she was referring to makeup that has nothing to do with the racial connotations of blackface. Other people's feelings do matter but they don't furnish veto power over the social conversation. It's true that her remarks could be seen as tweaking the blackface controversy but in a way meant to suggest that not all facial makeup raises that specter and at Halloween in particular we should consider the alternatives. But in reading comments here I am once again reminded of how the conversation tends towards the pure black and white. I wonder if saying so itself is racist?
20
It is. Generally, the black face is accompanied by costumes and behavior that mocks blacks. Failure to recognize that fact and the way blackface travels in tandem with those behaviors is at best, insensitive, and more likely, biased or racist.
6
"...insensitive... biased and racist."
On the contrary, in KellyLand, it's "normal."
Tempest in a teacup. This opinion of hers will simply be used to remove her for other reasons.
14
As if she hasn't been a thorn in NBC's side since day one. Negligible ratings, foot in mouth, and she just does not fit the time slot. Put her back on Faux at 9:00, oh what that's Mean Mannity's time slot. Better yet, just fire her. Pay her off and get rid of her, she's worthless and has been so since day one.
12
We are seeing first hand the ignorant entitlement of culturally attractive white women. Unfortunately, she shares her attitudes with women in her category which makes her unable to even understand the audacity of her remarks. There is not much truth that comes out of an ex-Fox employee but we all saw it last week. It was the kind of truth they specialize in, the dog whistle, innocuous remark that tells everyone where we all stand. Her status makes her of diminished intellect. The NBC job exemplifies the “Peter Principle” where a person is promoted forward to a job, finally, of incompetence.
16
Kelly has always been a sharp-tongued critic of all things "liberal" or even "moderate". What did NBC expect when she was hired away from Fox News? A tiger seldom changes its stripes. In fact, Kelly was hired precisely because of her conservative-no-nothing , anti-PC opinions on many topics, particularly race and racial matters on which she has a poor track record with many ppl.
But don't worry abouit her losing her position at NBC over this (she won't) because, worse case scenario, she can always go work for Newsmax!
8
I don't think MEghan Kelly is a racist. She said when she was a child making your face black was ok at Halloween. As children how do we know the history of blackface?We hope our parents would nix that idea but maybe they didn't. And yes, to many that remark is offensive but far too many just want to gasp and clutch their heart because their scared to death they might be considered racist too. This is something she did as a kid people. Can't we learn from this and grow
6
@kathy ms
If she is going to discuss a situation, she should know what she's discussing or listen to others. And that apology and standing ovation was for her white audience, not for the group she has maligned.....Her history of insensitive racial quips doesn't allow her more chances...go back to Fox!
1
Blackface refers to the caraciture minstrel characters historically used to demean African Americans. Somehow the meaning has morphed into condemnation of Kim Kardashian for using a bit too much bronzer or anyone dressing up as Diana Ross for Halloween. When an actor can’t play a member of another race — Fred Armisten of SNL in his spot-on portrayal of Pres. Obama — without it being called racist, racial hypersensitivity has just gone too far.
16
Megyn should have been fired after the Jane Fonda fiasco. Actually she should not have been hired at all given her history of racially insensitive comments. Toss her back to Fox.
15
The simple fact that she has reached her age without knowing that her remarks were beyond the pale should be enough to dump her. I think it's disingenuous to claim naivety in this case...
10
First I will say that Megyn Kelly seems to be pretty ignorant about race. The Santa thing was really stupid to say. And adding this, or how she said it, well it just seems she doesn't get it. But I have to ask the PC crowd. What if I wanted to be Muhammad Ali, because I love him, and wore a mask, is that ok? What if I dressed up as a Black Panther with makeup. How about Gandhi with brown makeup. Geronimo because I admire him. Bruce Lee with yellow because he was perfection. Jimi Hendrix?? And speaking of Hendrix. There was a Jimi imitator, or tribute, who used 'Black Face', Randy Hanson. He was so good and the shows so electrifying, (I saw one), he got signed to Capitol records. He captivated Francis Ford Coppola so much, he is playing on the 'Apocalypse Now' soundtrack in the famous upriver bridge scene. Hanson was kind of the 'Al Jolson thing to the extreme.
I think this particular beef is a bit too much, Hypocritical... Is any actor playing a part where they have to change skin color to be banned too?
Ms Kelly might have been trying to make this point. But with her track record, she was asking for it.
11
When the "Black Panther" movie came out several months ago and was such a huge hit (and a sequel is in the works), it wasn't hard to anticipate a flap over white children wanting to dress as that superhero for Halloween. Presumably there's no distinction to be made between that--or, for that matter, a white child impersonating, say, Nelson Mandela or Harriet Tubman or Barack Obama or some other prominent black person in earnest tribute--and shall we say traditional blackface specifically done in the spirit of mockery and denigration. Is the fact that celebrity commentators who dare to suggest such a distinction (which it seems is all Megyn Kelly can be accused of) risk losing their jobs a sign of social progress or simply nursing old hurts and offenses that true human empowerment would seek to rise above?
In the meantime, there goes my T'challaween.
8
I am 60 years old. I grew up in a very poor family, and we could not afford Halloween costumes, and my parents would blacken my face with a bit of burned cork as a costume. This was on the South Side of Saint Louis, which then was mostly white people.
Looking back, I do think it was vile, an ignorant practice, my white European immigrant mother who didn't finish high school, and my racist father from Texas, who also did not finish high school, should have known better. As a child I did not know better. I think the last time I was dressed in blackface I was 9 years old, and it was already dawning on me that there was something very wrong with blackface. As an adult, I definitely know- there's no reason to promote or do something that is so very offensive. It's racist. We should be looking for ways to NOT be racist, not defend those who cling to racism like a baby does to a pacifier.
Kelly, who's father was a SUNY professor, who herself has a law degree, has travelled the world, has been extremely fortunate in life, should have known. If she didn't, she is way less smart than she, or anyone else, thinks she is.
My solution is to try to understand ways of being kind to everyone, but that doesn't mean we should ignore blatantly racist statements, or do nothing to rebut them.
18
@Jack from Saint Loo As with everything liberal, this is an extreme. It's fine for white kids to dress up like Michael Jackson or Prince, etc. And it's OK for SNL to portray Obama. Get over yourselves. This was the context of Kelly's remarks and she had no need to apologize. Ridiculous.
1
@sandy It is not extreme for those who still live the effects of Jim Crow. Blackface was a tool of oppression.
1
Must we be offended by EVERYTHING?
Dint these people have jobs? Back to work.....don't sweat the small stuff.
6
@There It’s so interesting to see all these white folks on here who are not offended by Meghan’s words! LOL
Last year my white red haired grandson who is almost 8 dressed up as Bruno Mars complete with a curly black wig and some dark make up. This year he is Michael Jackson complete with a black fedora and white sparkly gloves. It's because he loves these guys. He doesn't have a racist bone in his body or thought in his head. I think we need to look at the intention of people imitating characters. Are they doing it to make fun of them or because they want to be like them. If it is the latter, then it is not racist; it's respectful.
27
@Barbara Greene, you're right. But this is Megyn Kelly, who has a long history of racially insensitive remarks, so I think it will be extremely difficult to see her comments as innocent. I think its adorable that your grandson got to dress up as these musical icons. I hope somehow the innocence can be preserved for children. There is just too much hate around.
4
@Barbara Greene
Me. Greene,
Let me suggest as a Black woman of a certain age (63) who has a clear memory of my parents and grandparents discussing the disparaging and retrograde depiction she of African-Americans by Amos &Andy, Al Jolson and others: siin color for us is like calling a Native American a redskin, at a minimum.
Darker complexioned African Americans have a hard time in this country.
Your grandson no doubt is sincere in his dress up for Halloween.
Megan Kelky is a fully grown professional who should know better.
The xritical issue is that she has a set of beliefs that run contrary to the mores and values of the larger public because they are based in racism. She should know better.
Your grandson’s situation is a bit different, at least at his age.
By the way, I can dress as Cher or Dolly Parton without whitening my skin, and people get it.
4
@Barbara Greene I think that's ok iff you're eight...
1
I'm fairly close in age to Ms. Kelly. In junior high I wore blackface in one scene of a play ("Curtain Going Up!" for those of you scoring at home). But I know better, far better, now. Ms. Kelly has no excuse for her willful ignorance.
14
NBC and Andrew Lack, as chairman of NBC, knew exactly who they were getting when they hired Megan Kelly. She made similar racist comments on the air at Fox. So, Lack's criticism is disingenuous, to put it mildly. Fake.
And, speaking of fake, remember, NBC is the network that created "The Apprentice."
11
I usually default to trying hard to forgive and hope that people can be enlightened when they make mistakes.
So, here's hoping a fairly clueless, usually painfully sophomoric person like Ms. Kelly can do better. At something…
In the few times I've ever seen her show when she was on Fox, I could barely stand it.
My brain literally could not take her tenor or manner or words.
Maybe she should do something cut and dried like the weather.
4
I don't understand why it's necessary to discount a person's feelings just because we don't share them. So many comments say that people offended by Kelly's remarks have no right to be. I just don't get why we intentionally denigrate another person's feelings. If I am offended by Kelly's remarks, or for any other reason, why can't that just be taken at face value? Why do others need to tell me that I'm wrong, or stupid or overly sensitive? Why can't my feelings be respected? I try to respect those who say they see nothing wrong in her remarks-if that's what they think, okay. I don't have to go out of my way to tell them their feeling is ignorant or wrong. When did we acquire the notion that everyone had to agree with us, and if they don't they're just plain wrong? What a nation of know-it-alls we've become--always correcting everyone else and pointing out everyone else's faults. Just ease up, people, and let's respect one another's opinions.
4
So NBC is paying her $17 million per year to lose 400,000 viewers from the show she replaced whose hosts didn't earn half that much combined! Sounds like she's a goner and this display of ignorance may simply hasten her departure. She grates on me when she argues with guests from the legal arena and, to bolster her position, she says that she was a lawyer for 10 years, omitting the fact that she couldn't hack it there either.
10
[[“For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white,”]]
Well, from a historical perspective, she's right. The fictional character Santa Claus traces back to Dutch, German and English fairy tales.
But, obviously, Kelly wasn't giving a history lesson. She was asserting her version of how things were and should be...like a blonde haired and blue eyed Jesus.
The irony is that white people routinely appropriate all kinds of things from other cultures - music, art, food - and present them as their own creations.
So why does Kelly care if people in a black or hispanic community or country decide that Santa Claus should look like the children he's entertaining?
Kelly would have been more accurate and honest if she had said "For all you kids watching at home, Santa just doesn't exist. "
But if she had said that she would have been fired by now.
As for dressing up as a character, people should have some sense of when their actions transgress from tribute to mockery. They don't have to care whether or not they are being offensive, but they know why they made their choices.
I don't care about the actress who dressed as Diana Ross. I've never seen her show "Orange" and I have no idea of any other work she's done.
It's trivia.
She shouldn't have apologized about her blackface comments, especially not if her comments sound like a legal disclaimer.
That is all.
1
Kelly grew up in upstate New York in the 70's and 80's. Unfortunately for Kelly, a lot of us were alive in the 70s and 80s and know what was and was not OK then. It would be interesting to see her produce even one photo from her childhood of someone she knew who dressed in blackface for halloween during that time. Kelly's problem is she makes false statements in support of offensive positions, a trademark of her training at Fox.
6
Tamron Hall was amazing and I still miss her. NBC really messed this one up.
4
She showed NBC who she was when she worked at Fox. What did they think would happen?
5
Political correctness is the scourge of our time and trump is 100% right on this if on nothing else. We have reached the point where reminiscences are suspect for not being politically correct. Megyn Kelly did nothing wrong. It's the high-strung hypocrisy of the suits, as always, that's the problem.
9
She has apologized sincerely, and hopefully learned from her mistake. In my opinion, time to move on.
3
The profound ignorance that has run rampant in this country is highly disturbing. To lower our intelligence by dividing life into pc or not we miss the history and the fight for social justice and human rights. She would be wise to resign.
3
A person who lacks any historical perspective and knowledge about what is generally considered offensive racial stereotype should probably not be a TV host.
Ms. Kelly is now no longer a TV host.
That's logical to me.
Smart people only need apply.
5
I believe the dislike and yes hatred towards this woman is all because she had a very successful show and career on Fox News. The constant attacks seem very unfair to me.
4
@Malcolm
Ms. Kelly has always been a racist and people are just tired of listening to apologies. The fact that a very talented minority woman was removed from that time slot just goes to show if your a white woman from Fox news with a proven history of being a racist you can get everything you want.
The national climate of the past some years has vilified so-called white males as typically racist, sexist, predatory and privileged. Although overly generalized and lazily simplistic, this profile has encouraged those labeled as white males to reflect and examine. Absent from this caricature is so-called white women, who are viewed as victims and, as a result, enlightened and socially aware. Of course, this exception for white women was necessary to build a majority voting coalition. A direct result of this exception, however, is that many white women have not examined their role and views in matters of ethnicity. Megyn Kelly's comments emerge from this climate, rather than relating to her time at Fox. The only ethnically-insensitive comments I've heard in the past 15 years have all come, exclusively from so-called white woman. On the one hand, it's important that we continue to reflect and converse. On the other hand, our shallow, thoughtless and mean-spirited binning of people continues to deteriorate our national climate.
2
This is overblown. It might not be good taste but political correctness are ruining a lot of things. I think the executives found their excuse to fire her because she reported on how bad of a job they did with #MeToo movement. Those executives should resign if they want her to resign also.
3
I remember a commercial advertising a cigarette. The slogan was "You can take Salem out of the country but you can't take the country out of Salem." Well, true to her roots, it seems you can take Megyn Kelly off of Fox News but...
4
It is time to move on. We need to stop this relentless commenting and stereotyping. Just because I grew up in Mississippi doesnot make me a racist anymore than commenting on a previous mode of costuming makes her one. Get over it and do something that supports progress.
8
Incredible, a person makes 17 million a year and is so out of touch...Incredible!
3
There are certain topics and opinions that are toxic, and a seasoned news and media professional should be aware of that. I'm not sure what she's reading when she's not on the air, but there have been enough in-depth features on the history of blackface that it seems like she could have shown more awareness of the topic and addressed it more intelligently.
3
“There is no other way to put this, but I condemn those remarks,” Mr. Lack said at a midday staff meeting held in the “Saturday Night Live” studios in Midtown Manhattan. “There is no place on our air or in this workplace for them.”
There is no other way to put this, but NBC needs to acknowledge its mistake in hiring a Fox firebrand and expecting her to act like anything else.
Send her back to the Swamp!
4
When children or adults choose a character for their Halloween costume, they choose someone they admire, not to denigrate or poke fun at them. In fact, I suspect that there are people in America who would be offended by a caucasian dressed as Diana Ross; not because the person in costume was insensitive to issues of race but because the costume wearer had chosen an African American rather than a caucasian "hero". One has to wonder, are only black children permitted to dress up like the Black Panther and can only white children be Superman.
6
@sjpbpp Yes. That's what they're saying. From now on, white children must only choose superheros of their own race and black children the same. I will be sure to point that out as I see Black Panther and Superman costumes darken my door on Halloween. Get a grip people.
1
@sjpbpp But if it hurts other people, do you really have to do it? Of the infinite amount of options, do you have to focus on the one that people feel is offensive to their history? Why the need to denigrate their feelings? They are not unfounded. Jump Jim Crow was a blackface character. Ever wondered why a particularly heinous period was called after him?
The Netherlands historically celebrated St. Nick's Day with black faced men accompanying St. Nick. When challenged in recent years they started saying "It is soot from the chimney they came down". Whole liberal families paid to have St. Nick and his band come to the house to celebrate for the amusement of children. Check in with Holland to see how PC is going over there. African Americans get to teach me what and what not they find offensive. Trans people educate me as to what freedoms they need in society. Gay people tell me they want the same rights to marry as others. As Obama said, we are "evolving". The idea that things were "right" and "correct" in some good old past is false.
2
If MK is in trouble the explanation is not this comment. To paraphrase Chinatown: It's the ratings Mr. Gittes, the ratings.
3
I am not a fan of Trump or Fox but Judging celebrities or politicians by these "GOT YOU" moments is good for ratings and bad for democracy
10
as if her non existent ratings aren't enough?
6
I seem to remember in the 1980s and 1990s (Megan's childhood) that discount stores annually sold packages of Halloween makeup. This included a large piece or tube or pot of white makeup, a similarly large piece of black makeup, and then little bits of red, yellow, and green. The white was for Geisha girls and skeletons. The red was for lipstick or blood. And naturally the black was for sunken eyes or blackface. Otherwise, why such a large amount in each package?
7
@Elaine Durham What is your point?
1
@Chris: Well, Megan may not be incorrect in her memories, just incorrect in bringing it up on an NBC morning section.
@Elaine Durham
The "amount" of black makeup is irrelevant.
I grew up in the 60s and it wasn't for blackface.
Zombies or witches, but not blackface.
Sorry. Any meaningful sense of "racism" asserts or implies the moral superiority or inferiority of one race to another.
Commenting on a past custom of costuming years ago, whether approvingly or not, is not racist.
Her critics are going to ruin the lives of a lot of people and do not one thing to improve an understanding of racism or to fight it. Their criticism of Megyn Kelly for presumably uttering racist remarks, even if they have hounded her to make a public confession serves only their self-righteousness.
27
Of course as you are in the perfect place to determine what is racist or not. You are of a demographic that has suffered from racism or racist acts and if not you have always stood up for others who have been affected by it? You challenge friends and those close to you when they are being racist. Are any of those correct?
You think the “I can’t keep up with all the people we are offending these days” line OK? You mention nothing about blackface, it’s origins, it’s meaning nor the effect it had on the people who were depicted in that way. Is it because it happened so long ago and they should get over it? Or is it because you have no idea what it feels like to be the subject of such ridicule and you could give a toss?
Why is someone being called a racist so much worse than actually being racist in America ?
2
@Mac, thank you for this temperate reply. I cannot address everything which you mention. I can tell you that I have addressed racism up close and personal with friends and colleagues (who often became former friends and colleagues): integrating restaurants in Georgia, resolving conflicts between roommates of different races, shielding a black student from white faculty who wanted to expel him for activism after King's assassination, etc. Despite a lifetime membership in the NAACP since 1968, I do not follow a party line or a PC line in these matters. I think for myself (and even change my mind) on the basis of my best understanding of the facts.
I am sure that stereotypes are painful to those thus stereotyped, whatever the group. But I am not going to get sweaty about the fact that the past was different and sometimes uglier than the present; I want to understand the past, not revise and judge it according to todays standards. I am not going to exclude Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" from the curriculum because it uses a word which whites are not supposed to use (black use it a lot, btw). And, to risk censure, racists are people, too, and I want to understand what makes them so and try to help them eschew it.
To answer your last question: I am not sure about the comparison, but being a racist is a fact, whereas being called a racist may or may not be a fit appellation. If false, it can be damaging. I hope that damage done by falsehood does not meet with your approval.
I don't understand how this is a controversy as this isn't a bug: it's a feature. This is who she is and how she's always been and if they didn't want these types of reprehensible opinions aired on their network then they probably shouldn't have hired a personality who aired them at fox news.
19
Who even watches her?
Most I know between 18 and 70 years plus work during the day or if they have a night job, they’re sleeping during the day.
The people I know that no longer have to work, are by and large, not sitting around the house in the daytime and the very few stay at home moms are trying to grab a nap, do laundry, grocery shop and watch the kids.
So, who watches Megyn?
12
@Solamente Una Voz Who watches any of those morning news shows? If I am watching anything, they might get 15 minutes, then I'll switch over to You Tube or if the weather is bad, the Weather Channel.
2
@Solamente Una Voz Agreed. I've never even seen this tv show.
I never would have known about MK at all, let alone about the allegations of racism, if not for this article.
1
All of these TV personalities are over paid and view themselves as too important. They offer very little in terms of real news and information.
24
Seriously, did they think the tigress could change her spots? They knew what she was and they wanted the clicks and viewership so they hired her. I'm sure her payout will be sufficiently generous and we will see her back on Fox talking about her time working in the Fake News.
25
@MomT Leopard change her spots, you mean.
Tigers don't have spots.
Unless they are in black spot face for Halloween.
1
Another mindless blond from the Fox family who has absolutely no clue. I can say the same for the View lineup of liberals who are out of touch with the middle of the country. Megan, however, is convinced of her righteousness because of the milieu she comes from.
21
I played the clip. Her comments were way over blown. She was talking about Halloween--and not defacing anyone based on their skin color. The whole thing is ridiculous.
44
It's time -past time - for Megyn Kelly to go. Hasn't NBC enough to answer for (as in making a celebrity with a national following out of a dishonest, narcissistic, Daddy's boy so-called businessman) without also ruining our mornings?
16
A leopard cannot change its spots. Like Gretchen Carlson, Kelly is more proof that the Fox taint is permanent.
14
Maybe she can get a job with Trump Administration.
21
This is just the kind of PC hysteria that causes otherwise nice people to vote for the likes of Donald Trump. Somebody should just say, “gee, Megyn, here’s why blackface is offensive.” It would be a learning experience for everyone. But condeming a person for asking a clueless question....one that many other poeple see as quite reasonable....does nothing to open dialogue and foster understanding.
42
@Cindy Sue
"Otherwise nice people"?! You mean people who only have an eensy smidge of race hatred?
4
@Cindy Sue EXACTLY!!!!
If Megyn Kelly is fired over this then it will help cement Trump for people even more. How many white stay-at-home caretakers, who are primarily female and the demographic of her 9am time slot, will view this as absurd? Her target demographic will view this as an attack on them - "if it can happen to someone as nice as her then it can happen to anyone..."
Progressives are just killing themselves and make it so easy for Trump. Trump needs enemies, like the PC police, and he runs his campaigns like a TV show and every TV show needs a villain - LIBERALS, PLEASE, STOP BEING THE VILLIAN!
2
There are a couple issues involved in this situation. The first is that it is incredible stupid and tone deaf for a grown woman to not know or understand the history of blackface. It wasn't used by white people as a joke 100 or 50 years ago. It was a way to denigrate a race on an outlandish caricature. Two, satire is not the same as being an intention or unintentional racist. Two black men dressing as white women in a movie is meant to be satire. A white woman dressing up as Diana Ross for Halloween is not satire. And lastly, yes people did lots of things many years ago. I could go on about the names my grandmother used for other races. She harbored no malice but it was the way of her time. It doesn't make it right, either now or then.
For an educated adult to claim I didn't know or I didn't understand is really unacceptable in this day and age.
58
Let's not forget how NBC moved an African-American, Tamron Hall, out of her job to make way for Kelly. The folks at NBC need a dose of racial sensitivity!
34
You can take the personality out of Fox News, but you can't take the Fox News out of the personality.
17
Megyn Kelly’s bigoted and ignorant views belong at Foxnews, her natural home.
She wouldn’t have to worry about sexual harassment since Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Shine and Eric Bolling aren’t there anymore.
Heck, the casting couch is probably gone too!
It’s amazing that NBC gave her a 3-year, $69 million guaranteed contract after all the stuff she spewed at Fox on a regular basis.
Tamron Hill had a better show and drew higher ratings for far less money.
26
@Chris Fox News is hardly the only network where sexual harassment has been an issue. I don't think I need to list the culprits. They also are hardly the only place where you can find biased, bigoted and ignorant views expressed, sometimes covered up as "reporting the news". I don't think I need to list those either. Some of what is on Fox News is actually fairly well balanced. Watch Brett Bauer's newscast, for example. Usually, the multiple sides of issues are presented. Neil Cavuto, too, though obviously a financial conservative, will not let anyone get away with right wing blather without challenging them. Shep Smith is not totally in the tank for the Right Wing either.
On the other hand, Fox and Fiends (intentional misplelling) is a total joke as far a news reporting goes. Megyn Kelly would actually improve that show.
She is not that smart and should not have a public job... there are hundreds of journalist out there who may be less blond and less white, but certainly would make a more intelligent and professional hostess. Come´on!
17
Potential new gig for Kelly: sideline reporter.
Tamron Hall : NBC :: Pam Oliver : Fox Sports.
"Blackface" was abhorrent well before we became PC nation. It's more or less on the order of calling a black person the "N" word.
Vox explained it reasonably well around Halloween 2014.
https://www.vox.com/2014/10/29/7089591/dont-get-whats-wrong-with-blackfa...
Sometimes, you just refrain from doing or saying things that other people find offensive because you don't want to offend them. Try it some time, Megyn.
20
The real problem is that she is so ignorant that she really didn’t appreciate how vile she is. What does NBC expect from Fox News? They got what they paid for - they need to let her go. I frankly have never watched her, never intended to. She’s a pretty face, nothing more. A real lightweight.
19
A clear example of current PC. If you are white, you cannot dress up as a black, an American Indian or even a Mexican because it might hurt their delicate sensibilities. Of course, if you are a minority, you can dress up as a white character, even if this is designed to be offensive, and Whites just need to get over it. Personally, my only disappointment was that she apologized, which makes her a hypocrite. As regards NBC, I wouldn't worry because, outside the liberal chattering class, nobody actually cares about this.
21
@Bryan
Sorry, neighbor, we white folk have understood the offensiveness of black face for a good 60 years or more. Nothing "current PC" about it. Time to catch up.
6
@Jake News Interesting, because a quick google search will reveal many mainstream white actors portraying black actors. I must have missed the hyperventilating.
@Bryan Agreed that this is the pot calling the kettle black (that's said w/o racist intent, seriously).
The "n-word" Mexicans, NOT Latinos, have for "Anglos" are plenty and, as a Spanish speaker, I'm careful to avoid using them simply because it's use is a sign of disgust for another.
I've noticed that recent shows where "the bad guys" speak in their native tongue, something becoming more commonplace as of late, they have the Mexican characters using the "g-word" and worse to speak about their nemesis, "white" law enforcers.
To reach viewers who are anti-immigration reform, they have charachters use disgusting Spanish slang about the white "enemies." This is the dog whistle show creators use to tell viewers what they believe in hopes of "drawing a certain crowd," and thus increase their ratings.
Figuring those wanting stricter controls on immigration are too racists to know much, if any Spanish, ergo, incapable of knowing the "n-word" for whites was being used, they hoped to get away with debasing "whites" freely.
In summary, the "outraged" act outrageously whenever it suits them, and the excuse forever used is: we can cuz we were abused by whites.
Sigh... what's next, future criminals using that to explain away abusing children and beating others?
1
Looks like she's a goner. As she should be.
14
Why did she feel she had to say anything about that subject at all? This is particularly true in an environment of heightened sensitivities.
12
What is Ms Kelly's job? Are there clearly defined parameters
known to her that she just decided to cross? I am no fan of hers, and given her rep and the "damage" she caused by being part of Fox News, it looked to be a cynical move for NBC to hire her in the first place.
BUT, in this case, what was her crime? Telling a personal truth about her own youthful experience? "When I was a kid we did such and such..." could also be interpreted as "look how things have changed for the better"; but we are in a media-hyped era, thin-skinned, rather than sensitive. All must kiss the ring!
27
@Allen You are misrepresenting her remarks. What you are suggesting is not the sense of what she said. More sensitivity is exactly what is needed in this case. It's got nothing to do with being thin-skinned. It's got to do with avoiding racist stereotypes.
3
Just goes to show that a "Fox" star can't necessarily make it in the mainstream. What Kelly had on Fox can't be replicated on NBC. The viewership is different. The tv watching public is too polarized. The tribe who watched her on Fox, won't change the channel to watch her on NBC, especially in the morning. This story could be different if she appeared in prime time and hosted a better show.
8
Megyn Kelly and anyone else who doesn't "get" why such remarks are offensive should watch "Dear White People" at the very least. Better still, basic education curricula should include a thorough and honest history of the black experience from slavery through today. Megyn, here's a reading list to give you a start: WEB DuBois, James Baldwin, Malcolm X.....
14
Megan Kelly is the dream vision for NBC if a 1950s throwback disguised as a modern female. NBC thought she coukd serve as the moderate newscaster who could draw viewership and ratings away from Fox while also keeping the white female audience intact.
It was a cynical ploy in which a beautiful and competent African-American host was thrown over because Ms. Kelly, I.e., Miss/Mrs. America, became available after her ritual cleansing via excoriation of Trump during the 2016 debate and her “brave” face in the aftermath.
Notwithstanding the outrageous act of kicking out a African-American female in favor a white female whose propensity towards racist commentary was well-known (since when do we all know that Hesus was white? Huh?), NBC took the gambit. And it has been a loser.
Megan Kelly’s past statements around race (as it particularly pertains to African-Americans) cannot be - dare I say it- whitewashed.
She is who she is. NBC decided that with all that baggege and all the tensions around “race” in America, it was nonetheless a perfect time for her.
They were wrong.
Seventeen million dollars is a rounding error for them.
They can easily take the loss.
But let’s always remember that their pursuit of ratings and more green stuff made it easy for them to choose the white baby doll with the foul mouth.
Even the ratings show how 1958 this ploy turned out be.
17
Kelly is talented but seems a bit arrogant and surprisingly naive for someone so sure of herself. That said, she shouldn't lose her show because of a couple of mistakes. If we fire everybody on tv when they make a mistake, we are going to be watching very bland tv.
10
@R. Anderson, I think her history has a lot to do with it. It's difficult to see her comments as innocent because of her history of racial insensitive remarks when she was at Fox. I don't think this Halloween conversation should make her lose her job, especially since she has apologized however, she has made way too many controversial remarks. If a 47 year old making millions at NBC, doesn't realize that she has to be careful with how she speaks and respect that the network has a diverse audience, then she doesn't deserve to be on the job. She took too much for granted, and now facing consequences.
3
I would love to see Kelly do a George’s Wallace about face. Her comments don’t reveal malice. They reveal ignorance of the horror and suffering of generations of Americans of African descent. It’s not an issue of what is PC. It’s an issue of awareness. If Kelly wants to grow as a person of conscience, she needs to dig deeply into her Fox roots, and go to the same place she went to speak out against sexual harassment in the workplace (or the Whitehouse). She could have been great. Instead she is an embarrassment.
16
@Kathy M Maybe you could give her a pass for the blackface thing, but the previous "Santa Claus is white" incident predisposes me to think she is of the opinion that being white is by definition a superior thing.
2
@veh I am not giving her a pass, anymore than George Wallace got a pass. I agree she is blind and racist. But if she awakens, she could be a vibrant voice. I hate to think, even white supremacists, are a lost cause.
@Kathy M
Yours is a nice, charitable comment. But, she only sees issues, like being sexually harassed, that relate to her. She doesn't empathize with anyone else. She never got the "white Santa Claus" thing.
1
Megan Kelly may have been ignorant of today’s politically correct effect of her innocent blackface memory, but she was hardly racist in recalling it, nor does she owe anyone an apology for her ignorance. The ignorance comes from her critics accusing her of racism, like CBS’s Gayle King, NBC’s Al Roker and the usual suspects at CNN network.
The history of “Blackface” Minstrelsy must include the fact of black contributions to the performances of later white minstrels who used it to reinforce racist cultural stereotypes of African Americans. In the early 1800s, black minstrels like William Henry Lane, Thomas Dilward, Booker and Clayton’s Georgia Minstrels, Sam Hague’s Troupe, Callender’s Consolidated Colored Minstrels, brought fame to black minstrels — Billy Kersands, James A. Bland, Sam Lucas, Martin Francis and Wallace King.
The tradition of Blackfaced performers was amusing to Black audiences, even as it propagated racist stereotypes by blackfaced whites in England and to Asians who had never met or seen a living black African or African American.
In the antebellum slave era, black minstrelsy was, like black invented rap music today, adopted and promoted by white minstrels more widely than the acts of black performers. (Mel Watkins’s book, “On the Real Side: Laughing, Lying and Signifying — The Underground Tradition of African-American Humor that Transformed American Culture, from Slavery to Richard Pryor,” New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994: 114-115.
19
Try watching the very popular Black and White Minstrel Show aired on UK tv in 1960s
@Bayou Houma
Thanks for the reference and the perspective - that sounds like an interesting book. Your remarks on this topic are refreshing and informative. Dare I say, smart, even.
Political correctness is the modern equivalent of blackface - it is a cheap mask, mimicing without insight, falsely parading superiority and ineffectively disguising the motives and identity of the practitioner. We would do well to substitute rational discourse, as you suggest.
This is what NBC gets for trying to appease the right wing by hiring a FOX "News" host. No one with a conscience or an appreciation for FACTS works for Rupert Murdoch. BTW: I wish MSNBC would end its attempts to appeal to the right wing and seem fair and balanced (what FOX says it is) by hiring Republican operatives, too. The Truth does always lie between two opposing points of view, and Republican/FOX operatives prove it.
16
This is ridiculous. The speech police are out in force again, getting offended for no reason. Didn’ Eric Holder call us a nation of cowards for not being able to openly discuss race? Now you know why. The Leftist/Progessives in this country have us all too scared to say anything. At my workplace not long ago I had a coworker who came back from maternity leave and the first time I saw her I gave her a hug, welcomed her back and told her we missed her. As I walked away I thought maybe I shouldn’t have hugged her, could that have been a friable “offense”? What is happening to this country?
16
@JP Kelly didn't openly discuss race. She openly made a racist remark. That's not the same thing.
4
She has become increasingly more biased and unprofessional. I think NBC was hoping to appeal to Trumpers by having her spout her nonsense. I will be surprised if she leaves..her ratings may actually improve in this sick climate.
6
Given the racial history surrounding dressing up in costumes to specifically mock black people, dressing in "black face" is indeed a racist act. It's really a sign of the times, that we haven't come as far as we would like to believe, when an anchor on a morning show declares to her viewing audience that there is absolutely nothing wrong with white people using "black face."
I'm the furthest thing from PC, but common sense would dictate that if you wanted to be Diana Ross, or any other black celeb, on halloween, you don't need "black face" to accomplish the feat. Simply dress in the same style as the entertainer/actor. You don't need to paint your face.
As an aside, if those are her public remarks, one can only imagine what Megyn says in "private."
29
@Dia
Common sense is not that common anymore.
4
Dia, such a reasonable comment. Good job.
4
The reaction to a very simple comment is scary. Appropriately reminiscent of Frankenstein being hunted by a mob of angry town-folks with torches and pitchforks.
Our founders protect self expression -- so that we, as individuals, have the ability to be creative without the fear of... anything, whether it be a mob of angry people or the government.
15
@BrendanMF Ms. Kelly is legally allowed to say whatever she wants (with limited exceptions, like lying under oath, threats, "fire in a crowded theater", etc.). That hasn't changed.
I'm not sure why you think that Ms. Kelly should be protected from criticism of what she says. Do her critics not have freedom of speech as well? There's a pretty giant leap from "person being paid millions to talk on television is being criticized" to "person being chased with weapons".
The first amendment only means that the government can't restrict your speech. It doesn't mean that everyone in America is entitled to a television show where they can say whatever they want, and that no one is allowed to criticize or disagree with them.
16
@Lizbeth It's quite interesting to see just how little "free speechers" know about the first amendment. Your comment is spot on correct, but again, how little do they know!
1
@BrendanMF Kind of like they did in Charlottesville? I do recall see many, many tiki torches carried by white nationalists. Is that the reference you're making here? I think not, but again, it fits your narrative so therefore you believe you must be correct.
2
I just remembered how much I liked Tamron Hall. And how much less I watch NBC reflecting the constant series of flaky decisions on personnel.
28
@poslug I too enjoyed tuning in when Tamron was on NBC.
2
I have never watched Meghan Kelly on NBC/Today because I never watched her on Fox. Looks like I made a good decision the moment her "joining" NBC was announced.
25
@Boo So investigation yields ignorance while avoiding exposure to another person’s perspective yields enlightenment? Interesting take on how one best forms an opinion about Megyn Kelly.
1
She was wrong: it is only acceptable in combat operations.
8
Smart and concise in London.
1
Ms. Kelly was hired away from Fox, where she was the network’s prime “eye candy.” Fox offered her a lot of money to stay (perhaps knowing she would not accept) even though there seems to be a pattern of releasing female talent by age 50.
Kelly’s ratings on Today have been, well, low. And rightly so, because her show has been awful; she’s also refused to play the eye candy role anymore, which doesn’t appeal as much to a female audience anyway. She’s nonetheless like a fish out of water on Today.
At the risk of being cynical this may NBC’s opportunity to rid itself of a very expensive mistake and move on. Alas, they lost the very talented Tamron Hall in the wake of Kelly’s hiring.
34
@David I believe Tamron left, because NBC disrespected her very badly. When her contract was up, NBC offered her pennies (by network news standards), despite the fact that she had spent years at MSNBC and NBC and had a top rated morning show. Tamron knew her value and would not accept the blatant disrespect from NBC.
3
NBC made a huge cultural mistake,
You can remove Megyn Kelly out of Fox,
But you cannot remove The Fox outta Megyn.
A cynical and failed experiment.
6
Ms. Kelly is a smart and experienced TV personality, and I don't believe she didn't understand that her remarks would cause controversy. She probably calculated that she could handle the reaction and that it would bring attention to her show and perhaps attract some of her old Fox viewers.
I hope it all blows up in her face.
41
NBC hired Megyn Kelly away from FOX, and is in an uproar about her insensitive remarks. What other outcome were they expecting?
61
This is why we can't have open dialogue on race.
14
It’s not a dialogue. It was a monologue. A dialog would require her to have black people on her show to educate her on things she’s never thought about because she’s never had to, and horrors and indigo notices she’s never experienced because she’s never had to. She can tell them plenty about what it feels like to constantly refuse to consider other people experiences when forming her own opinions about the world...
12
Didn't NBC know what they were getting when they hired her? She had worked for FOX after all.
26
Who's surprised? The real news is why NBC hired the lady in the first place. The whole Santa Claus fiasco was all they needed to know about the type of person they were taking on. $17 million?! Good grief.
61
If only Al Jolson was alive to defend the artistic merit.
7
Aside from being easy on the eyes is there any good reason to watch the lady's unentertaining show? With this insensitive remark it appears that she regressed to her FOX days.
13
The term "blackface" refers to post civil war actors (and through the civil rights movement) who were lampooning African Americans. They were demeaning and perverse caricatures. This is very different than donning skin darkening makeup to portray a non-caricature. The inability to separate the two seems uninformed or lazy.
47
The inability to understand how we can’t—and also shouldn’t—separate the two is uninformed and lazy.
6
@FJR
Learn your history. Formalized minstrel shows were begun by Dan Emmett in the 1830s, 60 years before the Civil War.
1
@sc Well - by all means, please enlighten us ignorant rubes, who cannot fathom how dressing up as black is "hurtful", racially insensitive", and "demeaning"....
I don’t know where Megyn Kelly was raised, or by whom, but I am some twenty years older than she is and blackface while trick or treating was never ok, even in my antediluvian era.
76
@Deborah Born in Illinois, raised in upstate New York by a college professor and a stay at home mom.
The thing is, if she was raised in a predominantly white community, why would her childhood fantasies be about imitating or mocking black people?
1
How long until the GOP declares, in Megyn Kelly's defense, that liberals in this country have launched a "war on Halloween" and that another one of our most revered days is under assault.
28
Well its the right wing Christians who long ago declared Halloween to be devil worship.
2
I want to suggest that maybe, just maybe, when Megyn Kelly was young, AND WHERE she was young, it WAS okay to dress in blackface because she grew up in an isolated, privileged place and time. So, what to do with her lack of education on this topic? I suggest that Ms. Kelly be paired up with a talented, generous person of color to produce a series of specials called “The Education of Megyn Kelly.” It could be a way to bring her cohort out of the shadows that are deliberately and carefully cultivated in the Fox News Universe and into a more enlightened America. Or not.
24
I take it, when you say "enlightened" and "educated," you mean to describe someone who has attained agreement with your viewpoint or that of some dictator of what is or is not acceptable?
5
She’s 50 years old. She’s not unintelligent. She’s a reporter. She knows that stuff that was “ok” when she was a kid isn’t ok anymore. The problem is she things that she doesn’t have to think critically about the substance what she’s says or she thinks before she says anything. She was faux news eye candy for so long that I’m not surprised.
1
Megyn needs to do her racial homework on her own time. Don’t ask talented broadcasters of color to take charge of her education. Time to send Megyn to the clinic for too much ‘Rightwing Thinking’
1
I don't see anything wrong with what she said. It is a shame that she is apologizing. It is a shame but a predictable event, given our uber PC culture, a microcosm of which was demonstrated by NBC's reaction. It is also a microcosm of the double standards by which it is OK for blacks to dress in white face and perform stereotypical behavior of whites, and it is applauded, not condemned. For example, there was no condemnation of Dave Chapelle using whiteface.
21
Not it’s not ok. There is a huge backlash against whiteface in the black community for that very reason. The main difference is that white face still punches up. Black face is still a reflection of whites reducing black people to exaggerated cartoons.
3
@Xyce
Your argument is a false equivalence. A black person putting on white makeup is not the same as a white person putting on black makeup. There is a long history in this country of derogatory, (making fun of), black appearance and culture. Some ending in the actual murder, (lynching), of a human being for the single crime of skin pigmentation. You, Mr. Xyce, coming from SC must have heard of this? You may know the history, but you aren’t aware of the crime against humanity it represents. Try, putting yourself in the place of someone who is denigrated and understand that feeling. It’s isn’t PC, as you suggest, it’s respect. You know, like that Aretha Franklyn song.
1
@Xyce But but, white people have never known oppression... wait, what?
1
I never watch the show, or any of these morning shows for that matter. And I have no particular affection for Megan Kelly. But how is it that instead of interpreting her remarks as ones lacking an understanding of what black face means to many, instead she just get's denounced. Other "anchors" at NBC and CNBC (Craig Melvin and Jacob Soboroff), two people I've never seen on TV, rip her for her "vile" remarks" and for comments that are "racist and ignorant". I give those two people high marks for their comments being grossly overdone, disrespectful, and clearly aimed at getting them some press. Is there no compassion left in us? Doesn't anyone believe it's just possible this was something Kelly just didn't understand? Has she ever done anything, at all, that would suggest a pattern of racism? If she had I doubt she'd have her current job.
11
This is a rich 50 old white woman telling the world that she should be allowed to put on blackface. She didn’t ask. It wasn’t a conversation. She told. She speaks in a position of authority and has constantly refused to consider the impact of what she says on others under the guise of “I’m not ‘pc’”.
3
@Charlie; White Christmas comes to mind....
1
I’ve watched the Today show for years - I’m old. I’ve cajoled my friends, when we go to New York to get up early and head down to Rockefeller Center with our silly signs. We commented when Matt Lauer got the boot. We watched those great dogs grow up who will be service dogs. We’ve tuned into the concerts. We’ve grieved with New York when the Today show held 9/11 for us in our hearts. We love Al’s weather report - he’s funny and nice. I got a great smile and thank you from Savannah on the plaza when I asked her about her baby. I see what’s new with books, movies, recipes. Call me an avid follower.
But when Megyn Kelly comes on, my remote switches the station.
The few times I have tried to give her a chance I see a young woman who comes across with arrogance, know-it-all- ism, inability to relate to the commoner, cheesy material, and a feeling of general phoniness.
In May my husband drove me down, from Wisconsin, to Selma, Alabama so I could walk across the Pettus Bridge, a life long bucket list item. I cried in the Interpretive Center there and lectured on an August day back here in Wisconsin celebrating suffrage - but voting rights did not come to black folks even by the 19th Amendment. They really waited another almost five decades for legislation to vote and for so many other “rights”. Still waiting.
And then in 2018, this so called “celebrity” talks and jokes about “black face”?
TODAY - can this woman. She’s a pretty face and nothing more.
57
@MIMA: You think you are old...ha. I remember when Dave Garroway went outside and talked to President Truman who was walking past the studio on one of his visits to New York.
3
Confederates. No need to call the Halloween costume police, these people are subscribers to a confederate army constituted by the 2nd Amendment same as they were before the Emancipation Proclamation. Every one of their desires and pondering is disruptive to modern post 2nd World War advancement.
That McConnell and Sessions embrace private jails is akin to plantation style incarceration at Parchment. That Lindsey Graham now supports Donald Trump as well as Ted Cruz in a bid to build more bombs disrupting global peace is a direct worship of a confederate march to upend the Constitution to some inept translation forced from the Heritage Foundation dragging us back to concepts 150 years old.
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Heaven forfend that Megyn Kelly express a heterodox view on national TV! She must immediately be drummed off the air, since we as a society are incapable of having this debate like adults.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. When Julianne Hough dressed as the character Crazy Eyes five years ago, she did so because she was a huge fan of the character and of Uzo Aduba. Similarly, Luann de Lesseps was paying tribute to Diana Ross when she dressed as her earlier this year. These portrayals were specific, respectful, and devoid of mockery.
Contrast these portrayals with stock characters from old minstrel shows. An actor would delve into the darkest recesses of his mind and combine every ugly stereotype about black people into one highly exaggerated character.
There's a world of difference between dressing as a specific person and dressing to mock the perceived traits of a race. If we ever want to build MLK's color-blind society, we had better learn the difference.
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NBC’s response is why people have been fuming against the PC left for the past three decades - and why more will continue to do so. The New York Times, by calling Kelly’s comments “racially insensitive,” reveals its own bias. How people should dress on Halloween is NOT a settled moral issue. Holidays like halloween have been a time for playing with, and perverting, social norms since the Middle Ages. Halloween is a time for exploring, experimenting with, and embodying identities normally foreclosed to us.
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@John
"the Middle Ages" sounds about right regarding wondering if whites using black face with regard to any tradition or holiday is appropriate.
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@John
John, let me just ask, you don't really think this has anything to do with the history of Halloween, or the ability of many people to see things in a non-political, non-emotional way, do you? PC is the new Rome, and we are in it!
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@John
Blackface has been "explored" and rejected for many years and IS a settled moral issue.
I have watched her show on NBC and I believe she is very talented but much too sure of herself, sometimes to the point of arrogance - but not on most issues. If we get to the point that we can't forgive an unthinking mistake or two by a broadcast personality, we are going to have very bland television. The fact that a privileged white person of 47 is unfamiliar with the way "blackface" is perceived by people of color, should not condemn her. The issue is that people of color see the world through the prism of their skin color. And, unfortunately, white people don't think much about blacks at all until a problem like this surfaces.
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@R. Anderson
I'm white. I "perceive" blackface just fine.
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You can take the woman out of FOX but you can't take FOX out of the woman. This is definitely the last straw and NBC will get rid of her. Her ratings have never justified her enormous salary; the previous NBC 9am lineup of Al Roker, Tamara Hall, Jenna Bush Hager, with an occasional substitute or additional co-host, had better ratings and cost a lot less in terms of salaries. And it wasn't cringe-worthy to watch. Maybe NBC can pair her with Brian Williams who also fell from grace but is still on the payroll in a diminished capacity!
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Time: 2018
Place the USA
Case: Super Sensitivity
Imagine a time when a talented group could make a movie with two talented men dressed up as White Chicks and get rave reviews. Or even more talented men could make some of the most Stir Crazy funny screens in all of movie-land. But sad as it is now those days have come to past. For now people which laugh when they first saw these films have now some twenty years later had awaken to find out they had been offended. So now being a part of this group which has been offended along with Ms Kelly who also appears to now part of this group, we stand in front of Our bathroom mirrors and shout out to each of us who as a group and individuals had and continue to be offended, Our apologies to all of us from all of us. so with split sputtered from my mouth which now covers the mirror, as my contempt for us having enjoyed each of those films. we say we and I'am sorry.
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@E. G. Capone
While I'm not sure I completely agree E.G. Capone, you've got one thing absolutely right. Why is it okay for a couple of black men to dress up as white women and be considered funny, but a white woman can't dress up like a black man and get a few laughs? Men have dressed up as women forever - and been hilariously funny. And I loved Melissa McCarthy's Sean Spicer impersonation. Let's have more of this. Laughter is the best medicine.
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@Amy Haible, because "white women" are not part of a group of people who have historically been denigrated and disparaged for another group of people's entertainment. Comedians and actors who used blackface were making fun of an entire race, and implying that they were stupid and obsequious and other unspeakable things. And yes, Melissa McCarthy's impersonation of Spicer was wickedly funny, but it wasn't mean-spirited.
@E. G. Capone
I seriously suspect you are Caucasian. The issue isn't about men portraying women or women portraying men. You are ignoring the history behind "blackface."
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I haven't been able to watch the Today show on a regular basis since the days of Bryant Gumble. Back then it was a thoughtful, smart morning show. The execs at NBC should look at some of the programs from that era and use them as a guideline for restoring a bit of intelligence and dignity to an otherwise worthless several hours of programming
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@R.F. I totally agree with you! When Ms. Kelly left fox I thought she would have a show with some teeth to it, I thought her capable. I was disappointed. The Today show has really gone down hill, they need Ann Curry back.
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Okay it was dumb comment in the context of 2018 but she wasn't wrong about the facts in the context of a generation or two ago.
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@John. Even if she was correct on the facts, according to you, it's the way she defended it, with a sense of grievance and tone deaf entitlement. And it's not the first time.
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@John I'm 51, also from CT, and do not ever recall anyone dressing up in blackface when I was a child.
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@John Way, way back in the 1980s wearing blackface for any reason was also considered racist. The civil rights movement was on the rise as of the 1950s. So, Kelly's entire commentary was disingenuous on its face.
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I thought she was at least 80 years old. I did some research and was surprised to see I was wrong and she grew up during the 80s, no less.
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@DThat is a salient point you make, She grew up in the 80's when blackface didn't exist at least in any public forum. I grew up several decades before and blackface did not exist in any public forum then.
Her claims are fraudulent, she is better off being off the airwaves.
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We used to get dressed up for Halloween in home made costumes. I was a clown, a black cat with a tail, and Robin Hood. I don't remember ever seeing anyone in "blackface." In fact, in my whole life I don't remember ever seeing anyone in "blackface."
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@Kay agree. When I was a kid in the late 60s to early 70s, the only time I ever saw any costume remotely resembling blackface was when kids dressed as hobos and used greasepaint to mimic dirt.
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@Kay, that's because even in the days before political correctness, people realized how completely awful and totally racist it was. I'm almost 70, and I barely remember Al Jolson - thank goodness.
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@Kay
[[ I don't remember ever seeing anyone in "blackface."]]
The funny thing is that when Kelly was a "kid," All in the Family was dealing with exactly this kind of issue.
https://youtu.be/3puvWR4-LHQ?t=104 and https://youtu.be/3puvWR4-LHQ?t=161
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As private citizens, I believe we should forgive and educate when confronted with ignorant or myopic points of view. "What's wrong with putting on blackface? Well, I can see why it wouldn't be obvious to you, but here's why a lot of people find it disturbing and offensive . . ."
But it would probably be a good idea for national news networks to vet candidates for top, public-facing positions carefully enough that the need to educate them on such topics--publicly and reactively--would be unlikely.
It seems that NBC has reacted properly to Ms. Kelly's remarks, but frankly, this is on them too. One presumes that decision makers at the network had a chance to review Kelly's reel before handing her a $17M contract.
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Some news organization should do a show on the history of Halloween.
I never actually watched her show but the blackface remark doesn't sound good.
I'm annoyed by all the female news broadcasters, weather persons, talk show hosts etc. who wear high heels, bare arms, and cocktail dresses on air. I'd like to see them wearing comfortable shoes and clothes that covers most of their skin. One of the big reasons I left NYC years ago is that I can't stand high heels. I always thought they were really uncomfortable from the time I first wore them when I was 13. A woman I know who lives in NYC and has been wearing high heels for 30 or 40 years now has bone spurs and can't even walk. I think it looks really weird when a woman is online in an armless or otherwise skimpy dress sitting next to a man in a suit. Doesn't there need to be an explanation that the men of the species have problems maintaining their internal temperature and must wear layers of clothes because they need a warmer heat setting than women do....
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@Kay Kay, as a woman, you speak for me. Why don’ these women wear sober suits like men do? I get sick of looking at legs and arms and never ending hair styles while men maintain dignity and composure wearing business wear. These women are put up as sex toys, eye candy. That’s the problem with a Megyn Kelly - she’s not serious and is profoundly ignorant. Women need to dress like the men and focus on intelligence and dignity, not on “beauty.”
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They are packaged for our consumption. News, the weather channel, all talk shows. No less than beautiful women with perfect bodies need apply. What I can't stand is the invasion of the vocal fry uptalking baby voices into radio news (listen to NPR sometime) which sounds less than professional. But you need to realize most of this is generational bias.
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@Kay These women have the temerity to choose what they wear. Maybe you could head up a Federal agency promoting rules of correct dress.
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I’ve never been a ‘pc’ kind of person .... that comment holds a world of misunderstandings, doesn't it? in fact, when she was a child, in the segregated world in which she lived, it was "pc" to do as she described. It upheld the political realities of her day, of the USA context and culture in which we all lived.
She is allegedly a smart woman but at that moment on TV was oblivious to a world whose culture and context have vastly changed and which she may very well resent.
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Not only is she not a PC kind of person, whatever that may be, she is not a compassionate, considerate or polite kind of person either, or one with any common sense.
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@vincentgaglione "...the segregated world in which she lived?" She was born in the 1970s!
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@Annie Not everyone lives in urban areas. An African-American born in Maine says he is often asked where he is from.
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There's a difference between being politically incorrect and being morally incorrect. This 'newscaster' has crossed both lines at the same time without skipping a beat. Perhaps she should have stayed at her previous network and received unjustified applause instead of justified outrage. Obviously, this wasn't the first time this has happened and it probably won't be the last.
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@Guido Malsh I understand politically correct as being aware of the diverse experiences and situations of the people around you and speaking and acting with respect and empathy toward all. I understand morally correct as being aware of the diverse experiences and situations of the people around you and speaking and acting with respect and empathy toward all.
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@MW With all due respect, the operative word here was 'incorrect' as opposed to 'correct.' Regardless, I believe the two are not mutually exclusive. Perhaps we agree to disagree here and I thank you for your thoughtful response!
@MW Polite and gentile consideration of personal vulnerability is all anybody is asking for. The callous and thoughtless disregard for other's lives (plants and animals included) is too prevalent in the U.S.
You can take Megan out of Fox but you can’t take the Fox out of Megan
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@Abg, True. But you can take Megan out of NBC. Maybe Brietbart needs a new whatever she is.
15
@Abg I said those exact words!! Can't watch her!
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NBC was "shocked - shocked" when it hired a parrot and it squawked.
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Kelly can't help herself. Once you have been marinated in the culture of Fox News the stain can't be removed. The arrogant and often cruel nature of many of the "performers" on that station is so deep, blatant and soul-killing that there is little room for decency, compassion and even the briefest of forays into contemplating one's own privileged white status. NBC, please stop the contagion from spreading any further.
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@Kathy
Anyone who pays attention knows Fox News is an entertainment show. They traffic in feelings and advocacy.
The network news features facts and analysis.
Big difference.
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Too late. Larry Kudlow, who now sells snake oil for The Great Confabulator, was a CNBC talking head for years. So was Maria Bartiromo, now shilling for Fox Business.
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"...just by being normal people.” Our society has evolved for many; yet, many others remain in a bubble of a lesser part. THIS is the divide. We have those of among the new-normal and those who cling to a long-ago normal that deserves only to evolve, change and improve.
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Personally, I don't understand why NBC hired Megyn Kelly in the first place. I disliked her on Fox News, and as a result, I have stopped watching the Today show, specifically Megyn Kelly Today.
The only question I have, is when will NBC sever their ties with Megyn Kelly. It can't come soon enough for me.
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I watch occasionally and was horrified of her criticism of the women who came forward during the Kavanaugh hearings. She apparently hasn't been "Un-Foxed" (News) enough. The Today show has become a show I barely recognize.
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@Siseman
Yes but you see, MK would've been criticized if she had come forward supporting Kavanaugh during the hearings. She would be attacked simply for being a woman with her own (wrong) opinion.
3
If I wanted to watch Fox, I would.
NBC has foxified.
Hiring Fox talent, complete with Fox points of view!
NBC also protects our president. There are no tapes from many years of its big money-making program featuring the president and his family that reveal unflattering behavior?
I can watch elsewhere, and we do.
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NBC doesn’t own the tapes you refer to: they’re owned by Mark Burnett, producer of The Apprentice, and he refuses to make them public.
NBC hasn’t done anything wrong in this case.
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Ms. Kelly forgot for the moment she was not still at FOX where her insensitive comment would be applauded.
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@Chrisc
Right because anyone who has a differing view like yours should be silenced, banished or worse yet labeled a racist or bigot. What a world we live in where you can't even give someone the respect of voicing their own opinion. Never watched her show nor the Today show or Fox but give the girl a break she made a mistake. Haven't you?
3