Jimmy Kimmel has apologized for his blackface sketches on The Man Show in which he attempted to portray former NBA star Karl Malone.
He called the sketches from the show he hosted with Adam Carolla from 1999 to 2003 “embarrassing” and “thoughtless moments.”
“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 said in a statement.
He continued, “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.”
Kimmel is also under fire for trying to imitate rapper Snoop Dogg‘s voice for a track on a 1996 Christmas album where he says the N-word multiple times.
“We hired makeup artists to make me look as much like Karl Malone as possible. 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 colour than it did his bulging muscles and bald head. I’ve done dozens of impressions of famous people, including Snoop Dogg, Oprah, Eminem, Dick Vitale, Rosie, and many others. In each case, I thought of them as impersonations of celebrities and nothing more,” Kimmel said in the statement.
“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,” the late-night host added.
“I believe that I have evolved and matured over the last twenty-plus years, and I hope that is evident to anyone who watches my show. 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,” Kimmel continued.
“Thank you for giving me an opportunity to explain and to those I’ve disappointed, I am sorry,” he said.
Many people on social media posted photos of Kimmel in blackface and criticized the TV host’s apology, including Donald Trump Jr.
Kimmel is not the only late-night host who’s come under fire this year for wearing blackface in resurfaced sketches.
In May, Jimmy Fallon apologized for a resurfaced clip of his impression of Chris Rock in a Saturday Night Live (SNL) sketch from 20 years ago in which he appeared in blackface.
The late-night host took to Twitter to issue his apology after he received backlash on social media for the clip that aired in 2000 and recently resurfaced on social media.
“In 2000, while on SNL, I made a terrible decision to do an impersonation of Chris Rock while in blackface. There is no excuse for this,” Fallon wrote.
“I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable.”
The clip resurfaced when a Twitter user shared a video of the SNL clip and said: “NBC fired Megyn Kelly for mentioning blackface. Jimmy Fallon performed on NBC in blackface.”