Refresh for updates During a Megyn Kelly Today discussion this morning about offensive Halloween costumes and blackface during trick or treat season – and if the mental alarm bells weren’t already going off, they should have been – the host who once insisted Santa Claus is white dug herself a Halloween social media grave.
“What is racist?” Kelly asked her panel of guests Jenna Bush Hager, MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff and Melissa Rivers. The quartet were discussing campus attempts to discourage “inappropriate and offensive costumes” during Halloween season when Kelly explained, “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,” Kelly said.
To make her point, Kelly recalled the Real Housewives controversy when Luann deLesseps darkened her skin to dress as Diana Ross for Halloween. “People said that was racist,” Kelly marveled. “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.”
Kelly’s guests were quick with the lifelines. “I have not seen it,” Soboroff said wryly, “but it sounds a little racist to me.” Said Rivers, “Normal people know where the line is,” while Hager offered, “If you’re making people feel bad…,” letting the sentiment end itself.
Ignoring her helplines, Kelly finished the segment by noting, “I can’t keep up with the number of people we’re offending just by being normal people.”
Plenty of “normal people” – and celebrities from Hollywood to the Beltway – hit Twitter to help Kelly keep up.
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