Transcript for Megyn Kelly apologizes for blackface remarks
Next tonight here, NBC anchor Megyn Kelly apologizing tonight after defending blackface on Halloween. There was immediate outrage. And tough words from some of her own colleagues. Here’s ABC’s linsey Davis. Reporter: A mea culpa today from NBC talk show host Megyn Kelly. I want to begin with two words. I’m sorry. Reporter: Just 24 hours after these comments sparked fierce backlash. What is racist? Because you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface at 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 like a character. Reporter: Kelly and her all-white panel were discussing costumes like this one — a real housewife dressed as Diana Ross. She made her skin darker than it really is and people said that was racist. And I felt like — who doesn’t love Diana Ross? Reporter: After a firestorm online, Kelly apologized in an e-mail to her colleagues. But this morning her “Today” co-hosts, including Al roker, were openly critical. She owes a bigger apology to folks of color around the country, because this is a history, going back to the 1830s, minstrel shows, to demean and denigrate a race. Reporter: Blackface can be traced back to minstrel shows when it was commonplace for white actors to paint their faces black to ridicule. Megyn Kelly today educated today about a painful history. 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. Reporter: After Kelly’s apology, a standing ovation. Now that standing ovation is the source of even more backlash. Social media users pounced, saying while her apology was necessary, the ovation was cringeworthy and undermines the apology in the first place. David?
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