Jimmy Kimmel released a statement on Tuesday to apologize for appearing in blackface during his time on The Man Show in the 1990s.
“I have long been reluctant to address this, as I knew doing so would be celebrated as a victory by those who equate apologies with weakness and cheer for leaders who use prejudice to divide us. That delay was a mistake,” Kimmel said in a statement obtained by Vanity Fair. “There is nothing more important to me than your respect, and I apologize to those who were genuinely hurt or offended by the makeup I wore or the words I spoke.”
Kimmel is currently on hiatus from his eponymous late-night show, but has been under fire in recent days for wearing dark makeup to impersonate former Utah Jazz star and NBA most valuable player Karl Malone. Many conservative pundits, including Donald Trump Jr., have blasted Kimmel for the blackface impression, as well as for audio from the 1990s unearthed by Fox News in which Kimmel uses the N-word while mimicking the rapper Snoop Dogg. “To be clear, I’m 100% against punishing comedians for jokes, even bad jokes from unfunny hack comedians like Jimmy Kimmel…but according to the left’s own woke rules that @jimmykimmel wants to force others to live by, it’s hard to see how @ABCNetwork allows him to keep his show,” Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter this week.
But criticism over Kimmel’s use of blackface goes back further than the current moment. Two years ago, the footage of Kimmel as Malone was resurfaced during his feud with Fox News host Sean Hannity. Last year, Nick Cannon similarly referenced the blackface worn by Kimmel and fellow late-night host Jimmy Fallon in a post on Instagram during Black History Month. (Fallon, this year, also apologized for wearing blackface during a Saturday Night Live sketch in 2000.)
In his apology, Kimmel sought to contextualize and explain the reason for his use of the offensive makeup.
“On KROQ radio in the mid-90s, I did a recurring impression of the NBA player Karl Malone. In the late 90s, I continued impersonating Malone on TV. We hired makeup artists to make me look as much like Karl Malone as possible,” Kimmel said. “I never considered that this might be seen as anything other than an imitation of a fellow human being, one that had no more to do with Karl’s skin color than it did his bulging muscles and bald head. I’ve done dozens of impressions of famous people, including Snoop Dogg, Oprah [Winfrey], Eminem, Dick Vitale, Rosie [O’Donnell], and many others. In each case, I thought of them as impersonations of celebrities and nothing more. Looking back, many of these sketches are embarrassing, and it is frustrating that these thoughtless moments have become a weapon used by some to diminish my criticisms of social and other injustices.”
Kimmel, who is set to host the Emmy Awards on ABC in September, ended his apology by saying he had “evolved and matured” in the 20 years since the impression of Malone. “I hope that is evident to anyone who watches my show,” he said, before acknowledging further backlash could await him in the future.
“I know that this will not be the last I hear of this and that it will be used again to try to quiet me. I love this country too much to allow that. I won’t be bullied into silence by those who feign outrage to advance their oppressive and genuinely racist agendas. My summer vacation has been planned for more than a year and includes the next two summers off as well. I will be back to work in September. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to explain and to those I’ve disappointed, I am sorry.”
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