NBC’s Tonight Demonstrate host Jimmy Fallon has apologised for carrying blackface in a Saturday Night Live skit from 2000.
The clip went viral on Monday, and led to calls for Fallon to stop the display.
In his apology on Tuesday, Fallon claimed there was “no excuse” for his actions, and thanked the general public “for keeping me accountable”.
A number of politicians and media figures, as properly as Canadian Primary Minister Justin Trudeau, have been embroiled in current blackface scandals.
In the skit, Fallon wore blackface to impersonate fellow Saturday Evening Dwell solid member Chris Rock, who is African American, depicting him as earning a joke about crack cocaine.
As the hashtag #JimmyFallonIsOverParty trended on Twitter on Tuesday, Fallon unveiled a statement apologising for the 20-calendar year old skit.
“In 2000, whilst on SNL, I created a terrible decision to do an impersonation of Chris Rock though in blackface,” he wrote.
“There is no justification for this. I am pretty sorry for making this unquestionably offensive final decision and thank all of you for keeping me accountable.”
Chris Rock has not however produced any community statement about the sketch.
In 2000, although on SNL, I designed a awful choice to do an impersonation of Chris Rock even though in blackface. There is no excuse for this.
I am extremely sorry for earning this unquestionably offensive determination and thank all of you for keeping me accountable.
— jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon) May 26, 2020
Saturday Evening Live, which has been on air considering that 1975, has a history of having non-black actors portray African-People in america.
The LA Moments studies other well-known black figures impersonated by non-black actors contain previous President Barack Obama, civil-rights activist Jesse Jackson, Michael Jackson’s medical doctor Conrad Murray and musician Sammy Davis Jr.
The controversy also drew some social media commentators to place out that other comedians, such as late night time host Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman have also performed televised comedy sketches in blackface.
NBC, the community that employs Fallon, fired information anchor Megyn Kelly in 2018 after she designed controversial responses defending the use of blackface.
Much more a short while ago, the Canadian prime minister and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam have equally correctly resisted phone calls to resign for sporting blackface when they ended up more youthful.
What is blackface?
Blackface has a heritage of perpetuating offensive and racist stereotypes of African People in america courting back again extra than 200 decades in the United States.
“It’s a tradition rooted in racism which is incredibly significantly about the panic of black individuals and the laughing at black folks,” Dr Kehinde Andrews, Affiliate Professor in Sociology at Birmingham Town University told the BBC in 2017.
