Night time talk show host Jimmy Kimmel apologizes after offensive blackface skits resurface...
Over the past week skits from Jimmy Kimmel's old MTV comedy series 'The Man Show' have been circulating online with Jimmy in blackface impersonating Karl Malone, Oprah Winfrey and others.
After announcing he was going on hiatus Jimmy released the following statement,
"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. 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. 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. 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, Eminem, Dick Vitale, Rosie, 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."
"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. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to explain and to those I've disappointed, I am sorry,"
