Megyn Kelly is in hot water after asking “What is racist?” when it comes to black and white face makeup on
Halloween.
During a panel discussion on “Megyn Kelly Today” on Monday with Jenna Bush Hager, Jacob Soboroff and Melissa Rivers, Kelly said, “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 okay just as long as you were dressing as a character.”
“If you think it’s offensive, it probably is,” Rivers responded, adding that “normal people kind of know where that line is.”
Kelly, 47, went on to cite “Real Housewives of New York” star Luann de Lesseps dressing up as Diana Ross as an example.
“She made her skin look darker than it really is,” the former Fox host said. “People said that was racist! And I don’t know, like, I thought, like, ‘Who doesn’t love Diana Ross?’ She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day. I don’t know how that got racist on Halloween.”
Outraged celebrities took to Twitter to respond to Kelly’s comments Tuesday.
“I cannot believe the ignorance on this in 2018. You are on national television. You have a responsibility to educate yourself on social issues @megynkelly. This is so damaging,” Padma Lakshmi wrote.
Patton Oswalt also responded, “Dear @megynkelly — you and I are approximately the same age. Blackface was NOT okay when we were kids. Take it from a big-hearted boy who just wanted to show his love for Nipsey Russell on the worst Halloween of my life.”
In 2013, Kelly sparked controversy when she declared that Santa Claus and Jesus were both white men.
“In Slate, they have a piece on dot com, ‘Santa Claus should not be a white man anymore’ and when I saw this headline, I kind of laughed and I said, ‘Oh, this is so ridiculous, yet another person claiming it’s racist to have a white Santa,'” she said. “By the way for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white, but this person is arguing that maybe we should also have a black Santa, but you know Santa is what he is and just so you know, we’re just debating this because someone wrote about it, kids.”
She also said, “Jesus was a white man, too. It’s like we have, he’s a historical figure, that’s a verifiable fact, as is Santa, I just want kids to know that. How do you revise it in the middle of the legacy in the story and change Santa from white to black?”
A rep did not immediately return a request for comment.