Is Megyn Kelly a Racist
or
Does She Just Play One
On TV?
"Does a news host who claims Jesus and Santa
are white have anything to say that we need to hear?
The prospects are frightening, and as frightening as
America’s new president. Because the normalization
and the whitewashing of Megyn Kelly goes hand in hand
with the attempts to normalize Donald Trump."
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Here’s
the question: Is Megyn Kelly really a racist, or does she just play
one on TV? And does it even matter?
Megyn
Kelly,
the iconic Fox News personality is moving on up to NBC News,
where
she reportedly will have “a triple role in which she will host
her own daytime news and discussion program, anchor an in-depth
Sunday night news show and take regular part in the network’s
special political programming and other big-event coverage.”
This comes as former Fox colleague Gretchen Carlson guest-hosted
NBC’s
“Today
Show,” and Greta Van Susteren is reportedly being considered
for an MSNBC host spot.
Given
her long record of making racially offensive comments on Fox News–a
white nationalist entertainment station posing as a legitimate news
outlet with real facts and such–exactly how is this going to
work out? What will this look like? And will Kelly do any reporting
on matters involving people of color, race and racism, Black Lives
Matter and black political activism?
And
does a news host who claims Jesus and Santa are white have anything
to say that we need to hear? The prospects are frightening, and as
frightening as America’s new president. Because the
normalization—and the whitewashing—of Megyn Kelly goes
hand in hand with the attempts to normalize Donald Trump.
Kelly
leaves a long trail of troubling statements from her days at the
right-wing propaganda mill.
In
2013, on the pressing issue of the
racial
identity of Santa Claus,
Kelly once criticized a black author who suggested that Santa could
be black, and dispelled the notion that Santa should be anything
other than white.
“And
by the way for all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white,
but this person is just arguing that that maybe we should also have a
black Santa. But you know Santa is what he is,” Kelly said.
And
for the bonus points, Kelly went the extra mile, adding “Just
because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to
change. You know, I mean Jesus was a white man – but you know
it’s like we have here is a historical figure and that’s
a verifiable fact as is Santa.”
At
Fox News,
Kelly
loved the word “thug” and used it to describe the
“anti-cop…thug
mentality”
that
she sees in black communities. Because after all, who knows more
about African-Americans and police than Megyn Kelly?
And
there’s also culture, there’s also culture that develops,
where it’s anti — it’s them versus us, it’s
anti-cop. It’s sort of — people have called it the “thug
mentality,” and that’s a controversial term. But that
it’s cool to sort of hate the cops, and hang out – and be
somebody who doesn’t necessarily prize being there for your
family, and so on. And how do you reverse that?
In
addition, Kelly she had
harsh
words for women who don’t look like her.
Like when she slammed Dajerria Becton, the 15-year old black girl who
was attacked by a crazed McKinney, Texas police officer during a pool
party.
“The
girl was no saint, either,” Kelly said of Becton. “He had
told her to leave, and she continued to linger. When a cop tells you
to leave, get out.”
Kelly
also
blamed
Sandra Bland for her own death,
arguing “even if you know the cop is in the wrong, comply and
complain later.” She accused Michele Obama of “whiny,
wannabe-victimhood” for speaking out against racism, calling it
a symptom of America’s “culture of victimization.”
And she
called
Beyoncé “skanky”
as “the new face of feminism.”
Kelly
also justified the
racist
emails
used
by the
Ferguson
police department
because
“there are very few companies in America, whether they are
public or private” where “you won’t find any racist
emails [or] any inappropriate comments.” She also warned Fox
viewers that Obama planned to forcibly diversify communities that are
“too
white [and] too privileged.”
And she perpetuated the myth of the
New
Black Panthers
using
voter
intimidation
to
hand Obama the presidency, an outrageous claim that fed Trump’s
claims of a rigged 2016 election.
According
to Angelo Carusone, the president of the watchdog group Media
Matters, Megyn Kelly is a
“pernicious
purveyor of misinformation”
and
has used white racial anxiety to further her career. The group also
notes that Kelly defended “anti-gay hate groups” and
promoted Fox’s rightwing lies. Moreover,
she
waited until after the election
to
reveal that Fox News had shifted to positive coverage of Trump, and
that he had inside information on the question Kelly asked him at the
first Republican primary debate.
Meanwhile,
as Kelly may have rustled up some sympathy for herself as word spread
about the sexual harassment she faced at Fox,
the
sexual advances from Roger Ailes, and disgusting sexist and
misogynist comments from Trump, she cannot have it both ways.
Megyn
Kelly should not have experienced sexual harassment. At the same
time, much like white folks who voted for Trump, she also shouldn’t
embrace white supremacy. And while I am certain that the slave
master’s wife was abused by her husband back on the plantation,
I imagine she benefited from her white privilege and, in turn, took
it out on the slaves.
Ultimately,
Kelly deserves about as much sympathy as Clarence Thomas after he
sexually harassed Anita Hill, yet claimed he was the victim of a
“high-tech lynching” in his Senate confirmation hearing.
So,
with Trump remaining the executive producer of “Celebrity
Apprentice,” and with Megyn Kelly coming to NBC,
the
network has some bad optics on its hands. Assuming she believed
everything she said about black people on Fox over the years, hiring
Kelly is totally unacceptable. And if she didn’t believe the
things she said, then she was clearly used as white nationalist
eye
candy
and was paid well for it, which is just as repugnant.
But
someone over at NBC has decided that is fine, because racism is a
virtue in Trump’s America. The racism of Fox News is now
mainstream, while the white supremacy of Breitbart.com is in the
White House and running the country come Jan. 20.
Sadly,
these days, you can get away with disrespecting black people, and in
this case, even get a promotion for it. Megyn Kelly is proof that
when you’re white and racist in Trump’s America, anything
is possible.
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