Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Why Megyn Kelly Needs to Apologize





The fallout continues over Megyn Kelly's controversial "Santa and Jesus are white" declaration last week on her Fox News program "The Kelly File." Yet there's been no apology, only a terse defense of her statements as "tongue-in-cheek" while accusing her critics of having "knee-jerk" reactions and of "race-baiting."

Ya gotta love some conservatives. They make outrageous, offensive remarks and then when criticized for it they turn the tables and play the victim. Their logic is pretty convoluted: it's not the folks who actually make the racially insensitive comments who are the race-baiters, it's those who condemn them for it who are race-baiting:

"The fact that an offhand jest that I made during a segment about whether Santa should be replaced by a penguin has now become a national firestorm says two things: race is still an incredibly volatile issue in this country and Fox News and yours truly are big targets for many people."

She was referring to the Aisha Harris's piece in Slate last week suggesting that Santa Claus is not white and that he should actually be a penguin.

Kelly lashed out at her detractors, as have many readers of my blog last week on this subject, accusing liberals of having no sense of humor:

"Humor is a part of what we try to bring to this show but sometimes that is lost on the humorless."

Well Megyn, clearly we liberals have a different sense of humor than you conservatives. We find nothing funny about a white, blond Fox News anchor staring into a camera and unequivocally asserting to black children that Jesus and Santa Claus are white. The "humor" is lost on us. In fact, your comments were quite striking and absent the "jest" you cite. They were quite calculated and mean-spirited.

Kelly needs to apologize, just as she and other conservatives have demanded from countless liberals (Martin Bashir anyone??) who've made remarks they deem offensive.

To be sure, the Megyn Kelly Santa saga reminds us of something ugly and pervasive in our society today: that there's still a lot of white people around who vociferously defend other white people who believe everything white is right.

So yes Megyn, you're absolutely right about one thing: race is still an incredibly volatile issue in America. Aided in no small part by you and Fox News.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Sorry Megyn Kelly, Santa Claus Isn't White






The insanity on Fox news reached new heights this week during a three-minute debate on "The Kelly File" over a controversial piece in Slate by Aisha Harris, "Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore," which also suggested that Kris Kringle become a penguin instead.

Host Megyn Kelly, visibly perturbed, stared into the camera and delivered a stinging declaration:

"For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white. But this person is maybe just arguing that we should also have a black Santa. But, you know, Santa is what he is, and just so you know, we're just debating this because someone wrote about it, kids."

But wait, there's more. Cupping her hands to her mouth as if she was telling us a secret she semi-whispered: "Jesus was a white man too...I mean, he was an historical figure, that was a verifiable fact, as is Santa...I just want the kids watching to know that."

To this I say...thank you Megyn Kelly, for not just bringing this supremely important issue to the forefront of America's fair and balanced news network, but for  establishing the facts, something for which you, your colleagues and your boss Roger Ailes pride yourselves on with great masturbatory fanfare. And as we all know, nothing says "verifiable facts" like "Fox News."

But then it gets even nuttier. Contemplating the penguin suggestion, an incredulous Kelly barked, "Ok, that's where she goes off the rails!"

Lending some scientific back-up was fellow Fox commentator Monica Crowley: "First of all, the penguin would never work, Megyn, because a penguin cannot lug all of those gifts around the world!"

That's right, Monica, only Santa can! But wait...we're talking about the same guy, right? The big old fat dude who toils for a year with a bunch of elves and then streaks through the sky in a reindeer-led sleigh while sliding down and back up chimneys to deliver presents to every Christian home in the world? That guy?

I hate to break this to ya Megyn, because clearly your love of the Kringlemeister runs deep, but Santa Claus is not real. He's a figment of our imagination and fantasy. Therefore, he can be whatever the heck we want him to be. Even a penguin.

But Kelly, so quick on her Caucasian feet, defended the status quo: "Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to change."

Yes it does, Megyn. Just because white people have concluded that Santa is white doesn't make it right, a fact or a status that's immune from change. It doesn't matter what he's 'always been.' I'm sure prior to 1865 there were a lot of white folks who said about slaves, "but they've always been slaves!"

To be sure, Kelly's Santa segment was great entertainment...even providing my all-time favorite Fox moment, which came at the end from Crowley: "You can't take facts and then change them to fit some sort of a political agenda." Talk about 'going off the rails'...