Oh, crazy, desperate, race-baiting, ignorant Megyn Kelly…
… how we’ve missed you!
The formerly controversial Fox News host moved over to NBC at the outset of 2018, determined to shed her polarizing reputation and settle in as a harmless and happy morning personality.
She wanted to be the next Kelly Ripa, basically.
The thing is, though, there’s already a Kelly Ripa on television — and Kelly quickly learned that you can’t go from ranting and raving about the plight of the rich white person on Fox to casually discussing makeup and paleo recipes on NBC.
Viewers do not forget.
So, with her Today Show ratings dwindling, Kelly has returned to what she does best:
Making really dumb, close-minded and misguided statements.
She sided with Brett Kavanaugh a few weeks ago, for example, arguing that the Supreme Court justice nominee was innocent of sexual misconduct simply because he said so.
And now Kelly is here to wonder why people dressing in blackface is such a big deal.
“I have to give you a fair warning, I’m a little fired up about Halloween costumes this morning,” Kelly said on Tuesday to open a segment.
“I mean, truly, political correctness has gone amok. There are strict rules on what you may and may not wear by someone who thinks is the boss of you.”
“Isn’t the whole purpose of Halloween to dress up and pretend you’re someone other than yourself?” she continued. “I feel like it’s so absurd. Who comes up with these rules?”
What rules, you may be wondering?
Receiving flak for painting one’s face black for a costume, Kelly used as a major example.
“What is racist?” she actually asked.
“You do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid, that was OK just as long as you were dressing as a character.”
For the record:
Blackface was a form of theatrical make-up used predominantly by non-black performers to represent a caricature of a black person in the 19th century.
It contributed to the spread of racial stereotypes such as the “happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation” or the “dandified coon” and it was very offensive to African-Americans.
It was stereotypical and insulting and a reminder to African-Americans that they were viewed as a lesser other by those who wore it.
This really isn’t complicated.
But Kelly brought up Real Housewives of New York cast member Luann de Lesseps to try and prove her point.
Luann faced backlash in April when she attended a Halloween party dressed as legendary singer Diana Ross.
de Lesseps said soon afterward that she understood the criticism and apologized for it. But Kelly doesn’t comprehend why she had to do so.
“People said that that was racist! And I don’t know, like, I thought, like, ‘Who doesn’t love Diana Ross?"” said Kelly, adding:
“She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day. I don’t know how that got racist on Halloween. It’s not like she’s walking around [wearing blackface] in general.”
Patton Oswalt spoke for most of the free world when he responded to Kelly’s viewpoint as follows:
It seems hard to believe that Kelly herself believes this one.
But we’re pretty sure we know what’s going on here:
She’s auditioning for a return to Fox.
Someone is clearly yearning to be employed by a company that will appreciate her racist views.