After sending a letter to colleagues at NBC on Tuesday apologizing for her defense of the use of blackface as part of a Halloween costume, Megyn Kelly continued to lick her wounds on her show on Wednesday, telling the audience she was “wrong.”
She said she just “learned” about the racist roots of the practice “yesterday.”
“One of the great parts of sitting in this chair each day is getting to discuss different points of view, sometimes I talk and sometimes I listen and yesterday I learned,” she said. “I learned that given the history of blackface being used in awful ways by racists in this country, it is not okay for that to be part of any costume, Halloween or otherwise.”
Kelly — who also touted that she’s “never been a PC kind of person” in her apology Wednesday — was universally criticized for her defense of the racist practice, a method used by white people to produce caricature performances of black people in the 1800s and into the early 1900s, which were considered comedic at the time. Blackface is widely viewed as a practice that instilled and perpetuated racial stereotypes of African Americans into the mainstream.
"I want to begin with two words, I'm sorry..The country feels so divided and I have no wish to add to that pain and offense. I believe this is a time for more understanding, more love, more sensitivity and honor..Thank you for listening and for helping me listen too." Megyn Kelly pic.twitter.com/6hHrvZLNvK
— Megyn Kelly TODAY (@MegynTODAY) October 24, 2018
