Isadora Lilly- 'Megyn Kelly Today' Show Cancelled Following Blackface Controversy

This past Tuesday, a panel of guests including Jenna Bush Hager, Jacob Soboroff, and Melissa Rivers joined Megyn Kelly on her NBC segment talk show the 'Megyn Kelly Today' show to discuss controversial costumes at a time of what Kelly described as "political correctness gone amuck". The all white panel discussed costumes promoting stereotypes, including cowboys and Latino and Native American races, and eventually began to discuss costumes which promote racism. Kelly prompted the discussion with the now controversial statement, saying: "But what is racist? Because truly, you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween, or a black person who puts on white face for Halloween (...), back when I was a kid that was okay as long as you were dressing up as like a character."

Kelly's show has since been cancelled, with her future on NBC unclear and many confused as to why exactly the show was ended. This controversy has received many complaints, with many voicing their opinion of perplexity or opposition. One viewer commented on the video saying: "So that was it, huh? That was the nail in the coffin? Seems like they (whoever's in charge) were looking for a reason to get rid of Megyn Kelly." Others also complained of the lack of diversity of the panel discussing blackface: "I'm so glad such a diverse panel of people are discussing what is considered racist and offensive!!!!". Meanwhile, NBC co-host Craig Melvin did not support her statement, saying: "There was criticism online yesterday that this was political correctness run amuck. That's silly and it's disingenuous and it's just as ignorant and racist as the statement itself."

In my opinion, I consider Kelly's statement to have been blown out of proportions, as it was only seemingly racist, but did not necessarily imply that blackface is acceptable today, only that it was when she was a child. Although I do not think that this statement is racist, it does reveal past racism in the history of the United States and could in that light feel offensive to some. Al Roker, the longest-tenured "Today" show host felt offended by just this, saying "This is a history, going back to the 1830s (with) minstrel shows. To demean and denigrate a race wasn't right. I'm old enough to have lived through 'Amos 'n' Andy' where you had white people in blackface playing two black characters just magnifying the stereotypes about black people. And that's what the big problem is. ... No good comes from it. It's just not right."