Megyn Kelly delivers an emotional on-air apology as guests lecture her on why blackface is wrong

TheWrap

“I want to begin with two words, I’m sorry. I defended the idea, saying as long as it was respectful and part of a Halloween costume, it seemed O.K. Well I was wrong, and I am sorry," Kelly said as she delivered an emotional apology at the top of her show, which was met by a standing ovation from her studio audience. “I learned given the history of blackface being used in awful ways by racists in this country, it is not OK for that to be part of any costume, Halloween or otherwise.” Echoing her apology email on Tuesday, Kelly added: "I have never been a P.C. kind of person, but I do understand the value in being sensitive to our history particularly on race and ethnicity." Kelly then introduced a panel of Roland Martin and Amy Holmes, who are both African-American, to explain to her why her blackface defense was wrong. “I’ll be honest when I saw the headlines I cringed,” said Holmes. “I had this sense that there was a bit of a blind spot.” Martin added: “We are in total denial about how deeply embedded race is in the DNA of America. There are lines. There’s history. There’s pain. As long as Americans live in denial and pretend this stuff does not matter we will continue to have this problem.”