Earlier, I covered racist trick Megyn Kelly’s comments on people doing blackface for Halloween. Megyn and her all-white roundtable did a segment where they discussed whether blackface-for-Halloween is really all that racist, and Megyn went full Fox News when she compared it to “whiteface” (not a thing) and claimed that when she was growing up, no one ever had a problem with blackface, and she sort of thinks people are being too sensitive. She ended up sending out an apology email to NBC staffers where she basically accused people of being too sensitive (again) and blamed it all on “political correctness.”
What was interesting about this whole incident is that… NBC didn’t bend over backwards to defend their golden girl, Blackface Becky. There were no suspicious stories in friendly outlets about how everyone behind-the-scenes is on Megyn’s side and it was all an easy mistake and we should forgive her. And then something else happened: during the seven o’clock hour of the Today Show, they did a segment on Megyn’s racist crap and it included some editorializing from Craig Melvin and Al Roker, both of whom were not having any more of Megyn’s racist BS.
Megyn Kelly issued an apology in an email to colleagues for a controversial comment she made on her show Tuesday about blackface. pic.twitter.com/0MJUvA1tjZ
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) October 24, 2018
Here’s how the men took her down:
Al Roker said: “The fact is, while she apologized to the staff, she owes a bigger apology to folks of color round the country. This is a history going back to the 1830s minstrel shows to demean and denigrate a race. It wasn’t right. I’m old enough to know have lived through Amos ‘n’ Andy, where you had white people in blackface playing two black characters, just magnifying the worst stereotypes about black men—and that’s what the problem is. That’s what the issue is.”
Craig Melvin said: “There was some criticism yesterday online that this was political correctness run amok. That’s silly. It’s disingenuous and it’s just as ignorant and racist as the statement itself. In addition to her being a colleague, she’s a friend. She said something stupid. she said something indefensible. A lot of folks don’t realize that Jim Crow is shorthand for the racist laws that have existed in this country for much of the last century, especially in the deep south; they termed Jim Crow from a minstrel show in the 1830s. I guess it was an opportunity for us to learn a little bit more about black face—but I think a lot of people knew about black face.”
Al Roker’s disgust is visible, and Yashar Ali reports that Roker “has never been a fan of Kelly’s and not because she took over the 3rd hour of the today show. He’s just never liked or trusted her and has expressed that repeatedly behind-the-scenes.” Al Roker knows what’s up. I would have loved it if he just screamed “WHAT IS THIS WHITE NONSENSE” and dared NBC to fire this trick. But isn’t it interesting that NBC gave Melvin and Roker the space to editorialize on-air about one of their colleagues f–king up? It’s very interesting.
Photos courtesy of WENN, NBC.
Thank God. Made me smile. Hope she’s closer to getting a boot.
+1
I wonder if now they’ll use this as the time to get out of Megyn’s deal. I’m shocked her show is still on tbh.
Al Roker has always been the shit. Remember after Ann Curry was fired bc Matt Lauer was a douchebag, and he on air said something about “not throwing our people under the bus”? Awesome.
@ Savu,
I remember that!! If my memory serves me well he was even more direct, saying “There’s Matt throwing people under the bus again.” And remember how indignant he was about Ryan Lochte lying in Rio and Billy Bush telling him to calm down??? Lolol!!! Al Roker is not here for the f*ckery.
Man Al not having Lochte’s bullshit was on of my favorite TV moments.
Never liked her, never understood why they hired her. I’m so glad that Al and Craig called her out. Time for NBC to cut its losses, hand her that golden parachute, and move on. I will not miss her. I do, however, miss Tamron Hall.
Al’s aggressive stirring of the ice cubes in his drink was everything. So great!
Oops.. this was meant in reply to Bluthfan.
She won’t be there past The new year.
They need to fire her racist white ass
So she is a friend and colleague Craig. Yeah, you need to take a seat because your words mean nothing to this black woman now.
Word….
I was disappointed in Craig. Kelly does not deserve ANY kindness or sympathy. No more excuses for racism! It is 50 years since MLK was murdered. White people cannot claim ignorance any longer. ENOUGH!
Drag her and cancel her.
Kelly: “I’ve never been a PC kind of person, but…” Oh, screw these people who have such a problem with political correctness because they still want to use certain horrible words and make fun of certain groups. I’m so sick of them. Society (ideally) evolves when people realize past actions were wrong and hurtful. That’s not being “PC,” that’s just showing growth and acceptance.
Yay Al Roker. He’s a cool guy.
Thank you! I’ve been trying to figure out an elegant way of saying this versus screaming “it’s not 1910 anymore grandmaaaaaa” at a very racist couple I know on Facebook.
Thank you. I just had an epic argument with friends on WhatsApp today because they were on about this “too PC” bullsh*t. I swear if I hear one more middle class white man talking about how the world is “too PC” I am going to lose it.
Yeah it’s not “political correctness,” it’s basic f-cking human decency.
It’s amazing how many of them like saying “they aren’t PC” but throw temper tantrums when you actually call them racist, sexist, homophobic. None of us are fooled by your coding, lady.
FIRE her racist, privileged, rich lady ass.
I watched this while I was getting ready for work and that is correct, you could just tell that Al was disgusted and I don’t blame him. I think Craig was just trying to smooth things over because Al really kind of cancelled her out right then and there. It was funny and well deserved. What a dumba$$ she is.
Mellie,
I lol’ d loudly at “Al cancelled her then and there”
Good. She’s ignorant and triflin.
And did you notice that the segment was informative and had a diverse table talking about it. This tells me that KKKelly cannot get anyone for her hour to come and talk about this. You cannot tell me that there was not one educator, activist, etc of color that would come on her show to discuss the history and why no one should do it. I mean, Melissa Rivers of all people was there to discuss this?
This was thoughtless and she thought once this went viral, she would get ratings from the Deplorables to ‘stick it to the libs’.
Well, she is a idiot.
Lack still thinks he’s going to get some of those sweet Fox ratings, eh?
Brotha Al Roker has spoken…
SHE GONE!!!!!
I love how they even put in the Santa is white clip from Fox News. I love Al Roker for speaking his mind. He is NOT here for that trick.
Al Roker has no time for foolishness and has been that way for a while. I rarely watch but a few years ago I had the pleasure of seeing him tear into Lauer at the Rio Olympics about the whole Ryan Lochte situation that went down there. You can tell by the look on his face that he wishes he could go in harder when shit like this comes up.
They need to fire her racist ass. She needs to start suffering some consequences for her ignorant words both on Today and from her years on Faux News.
Not nearly enough. She needs to be fired. Period.
I hope Tamron Hall is somewhere being fine, smart, professionally and financially fulfilled.
I’m not in the news business but even I know it’s not acceptable to show up in blackface. Meghan needs to get educated and fast. Not PC is a BS excuse. I’m wondering if, as posters said above, it’s preparatory to canning her lily white @ss.
I know-I am so SICK of having to hear this conversation every year. “Why can’t a white person wear blackface?” is up there with “well if black people can say it, why can’t I?” for me at this point.
If you don’t get it-or don’t at least have the self-awareness to keep your mouth shut about it and accept what it is-I’m done. I’m sick of feeling like I have a responsibility to educate adults on this in 2018. People like that are exhausting and not worth my energy anymore.
I have a memory from growing up in New Jersey, must’ve been 2002 or so.
My friends and I were trick or treating, and we crossed paths with a neighborhood kid we were friendly with (redhead pale white boy) who was wearing black face and an afro wig and was running around proudly telling people he was a n****.
It was so shocking and we’re talking New Jersey, which has its issues but isn’t a bastion of conservatism. In 2002! I just kept wondering if his parents saw him leave the house, if any of the friends he was walking with told him to just not.
I think eventually someone (an adult) put him in his place that night, but it was tolerated for way too long.
She doesn’t owe people of color an apology, she owes BLACK people an apology. All black people are POC but not all POC are black and that’s a very important distinction to make here.
I also just feel bad that they made Al and Craig go out there afterwards and clean up her mess and essentially have to explain why her comments suck to the portion of the viewing audience that doesn’t get it. Just problematic to make them do that emotional labor.
I don’t know Al but I know people who do, and I do know Craig, and trust me they did not make Craig or Al go out there and clean this up. I think they both wanted to go out there and say this. Al’s just a bit more forceful, and good for him. Craig is right it is a part of history a lot of people now may not know the origins of and why it is extremely offensive, aside from the obvious. Still if you are doing a show you should have some background knowledge. She’s either incredible stupid, doesn’t do who her background work or racist, and probably a bit of all of that.
So when is Broadcast Barbie getting the boot? They let Tamron Hall go for this dumpster fire human??
It’s simple: find out who her show’s sponsors and advertisers are and boycott.
Once they know repercussions are real she might actually bother to do the research before spouting ignorance and trying to justify it. She will not learn without consequences.
The fact that NBC let Al go on and condemn it speaks volumes. Meaghan isn’t bringing in the ratings and she’s now a liability. They will offer her a chance to leave soon.
Would’ve been nice to also have a white colleague explain how wrong she got it too… to show that you don’t need to be POC to be offended by it!
This is Kelly’s comments from 2013
https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/12/megyn-kelly-jesus-and-santa-were-white-179491
I miss Tamryn Hall. I can’t believe she was let go for this other woman. I don’t watch the 3rd hour bc Hall is gone.
When she did I believe two or three episodes of Dateline a lot of people posted on Facebook that they weren’t going to watch it that night..
People also said that if she became a regular reporter for the show they would not watch anymore