I can agree with the sentiment, but fuck Jimmy Kimmel.
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
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He went on national television in black face multiple times.
There’s a crazy phenomena since the invention of social media. People learn about things and pretend they knew about them all along.
Schrodinger’s Cat
Dunning-Kruger effect
Blackface
This is in poor taste, but it is not blackface. Blackface is a specific type of makeup where the lips are made ridiculously red as well.
This happened sometime before 2005.
Blackface was not a part of the “social conversation” or whatever at the time. Basically nobody knew about it. Jimmy learned about it and decided to stop doing so it.
Today he is using his platform to speak out against fascism. Drop it. Screaming to death about imperfect advocates only helps the fascists win.
Blackface and other racial impersonation/minstrelry has been criticised for being more than the - forgive my use of the original term - "darky" iconography since the 1930s - see American Humor: a Study of the National Character. 1931, Constance Rouke
Yes, but was everyone everywhere talking about it prior to around 2010?
No.
This was around the same time as the Chappelle show with Chappelle wearing white make-up and impersonating a generic white person.
Kimmel wasn’t doing a generic black person stereotype, he was imitating a specific person and put on the make-up to look more like that person. Tasteless? Corny? Dumb? definitely. Racist? …. I guess when you’re looking at it through the lens of today’s social discourse, sure.
Anyway, he stopped doing it prior to blackface becoming everyone’s favourite topic, and apologized when the keyboard warriors went after him years later.
Times changed and the masses decided this was unacceptable. The message was received and acted upon. People change. Give it a rest.
My ex in the early 2000s was at the time a member of an Eurasian alliance to campaign for proper representation of Asian people in the entertainment industry as there was a habit of casting white or racially ambiguous but not Asian persons in roles that were specifically written as Asian characters, and if their particular ethnicity (e.g. Malaysian) was specified, to cast someone of that ethnicity and not just generic Asian (e.g. Chinese).
So maybe not everyone - but from personal experience, it was very much a concern to many people before that time, yes.
Nobody had a problem with that skit or this Tropic Thunder role:
In fact, people had more of a problem with Ben Stiller's role playing the "never go full retard" part. Look up actual black face and you see the clear difference.
You base your understanding of racism on this? It's like trying to say that being a sexual predator is fine because people like Dennis Reynolds.
Go out in black face if you're that confident, see how long it takes for you to get called out for it (im sure you can explain to them that it's ok because Robert Downey did it). Black face didn't stop being a hate crime because of tropic thunder lol.
I gotta say if thats him. He looks like a black dude. Props for good makeup.
When was this?
Im not Google, look it up yourself.
I just did and all I gotta say is… meh.
Says a lot about a person when insulting an entire race for laughs is just meh.
Glad you googled it yourself tho.
What I saw is a person that made shitty jokes twenty years ago and apologized for it 5 years ago.
He hasn’t done it in literal decades and while his statement here is admirable, it isn’t going to make me start watching his show, I don’t see a reason to waste energy hating him.
What I saw is a person that made shitty jokes twenty years ago and apologized for it 5 years ago.
He didn't feel the need to apologise for over 15 years? He only did it because he was getting called out for it.
He hasn’t done it in literal decades and while his statement here is admirable, it isn’t going to make me start watching his show, I don’t see a reason to waste energy hating him.
I agree his take was fantastic, but just because I agree with him doesn't suddenly make him a good person or anything.
Also he has done many questionable things since then, people have connected him to the Epstein list, laughing at Megan Fox describing herself getting sexually harassed when she was 15, and his holiday album where he used the n-word multiple times whilst impersonating Snoop Dogg.
Dude is an asshole.
You put a lot of effort in to writing that and like I said, that energy would be better spent elsewhere.
You put a lot of effort in to writing that
It's 3 short sentences, is that a lot for you?
that energy would be better spent elsewhere.
Yes you're right, arguing with people who defend racists and is a waste of my time.
Have a nice day.
“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,” he wrote. “That delay was a mistake. 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.”
Also, I asked my girlfriend - the apology is enough for her. She also thought the joke was shitty.
When people talk about not letting perfect be the enemy of good, they're talking about you. Your behavior in this thread is a part of the problem.
lol
“We need to change people’s minds”
Dude changes his mind and uses his platform to spread messages of defiance in the face of facism.
“Fuck that guy anyway”
I just dont understand why this upsets you. Blackface? Im sorry there's real life problems that need to be dealt with rather than a comedian being a dick.
I saw the bit when he did it twenty years ago. I'll agree that it was in poor taste, but he was specifically mocking a single person, karl malone, who is a terrible person.
He wasn't mocking an entire race of people. Black face is a different concept where it uses white actors to poorly portray generic black americans, not specific people. It's a different thing than what kimmel did in these sketches, though again, it was in poor taste.