Megyn Kelly Doesn’t Understand ‘What Is Racist’ About Dressing In Blackface

Aside from Charlize Theron’s being cast to play her in an upcoming film about Roger Ailes and Fox News, we haven’t heard much from Megyn Kelly over at NBC. That all changed on Tuesday when the daytime talk show host, while discussing the topic with an all-white panel, asked “what is racist” about white people dressing in blackface for Halloween. Needless to say, Megyn Kelly TODAY viewers with access to Twitter (and plenty of others) were quick to answer Kelly’s question for her on social media.

“But what is racist?” the host asked, seemingly with complete sincerity. “Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid that was okay, as long as you were dressing up as a character.”

Kelly also used the discussion to defend The Real Housewives of New York star Luann de Lesseps, who was criticized for dressing up as singer Diana Ross in 2017. “I can’t keep up with the number of people we’re offending just by being normal people,” the host exclaimed.

Some of her panelists, like NBC News and MSNBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff, tried to push back against Kelly’s arguments against blackface being racist, but to no avail. So Twitter’s response to the tense exchange will likely have little to no effect on the former Fox News personality as well, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less valid — jokes and all.

https://twitter.com/gohomeben/status/1054742485484867584

https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/1054755943270043648

https://twitter.com/netw3rk/status/1054758527011512321

UPDATE: According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Kelly wrote that she’s heard from colleagues and friends and realizes her comments were wrong” in an “internal email” that was reviewed by the outlet.

(Via BuzzFeed News)