Video from a 2016 taping of “The View” reveals co-host Joy Behar darkened her skin to dress like an “African woman” for Halloween when she was 29.
The segment was focused on the “feminist statement” of embracing naturally curly hair. This triggered Behar to show off a photo of her 29-year-old self in the controversial costume, proudly boasting about her natural curls and how “cute” she was.
Former co-host Raven-Symoné was shocked when the photo first appeared on screen. “Joy, is that you, Joy?” she asked. “Joy, is that you? Joy, are you black?”
“I was so cute,” Behar said.
“Are you my auntie, Joy?” Raven-Symoné joked.
“I was 29,” explained Behar. “I went as a beautiful African woman.”
“Oh, you ain’t black,” Raven-Symoné muttered in response.
Reacting to Raven-Symoné’s clear change of tone, Behar asked, “Why are you upset with me now?”
“Did you have tanning lotion on, Joy?” Raven-Symoné asked.
“I had makeup that was a little bit darker than my skin,” Behar explained.
A firestorm of political controversy hit Virginia recently after an alleged yearbook photo of Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, dressed in either blackface or a KKK robe, resurfaced online. Northam, who advocated for infanticide earlier this month, initially copped to the photo, but now is claiming it is not him in the photo. In another twist, though, Northam did say he once darkened his face to look like pop icon Michael Jackson in a talent show. The Democrat has told reporters that he can still moonwalk, and seemingly almost demonstrated this before his wife told him it was inappropriate.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who’s next in line to take Northam’s position if the governor were to resign, is now facing an accusation of sexual assault which Fairfax has suggested was leaked by Northam’s team.
And to compound the political insanity, “the third-ranking elected official in Virginia, Attorney General Mark R. Herring, acknowledged Wednesday that he had worn blackface at a party as an undergraduate student, deepening a crisis that has engulfed the state’s Democratic leadership,” reported The New York Times on Wednesday.
In October, NBC host Megyn Kelly was canned from the network after comments concerning people dressing up as characters and celebrities of differing races on Halloween that critics decried as “racist.”
Ironically, Kelly’s comments merely discuss the type of costume Behar actually wore and proudly showed off to a live audience.
“I don’t see how that is racist on Halloween,” said Kelly, remarking on a cast member from Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York getting into trouble for dressing up as legendary singer Diana Ross. “Who doesn’t love Diana Ross? She wants to look like Diana Ross for one day, and I don’t know how that got racist on Halloween,” the former Fox host continued, noting that the costume was done in homage, not mockery.
“What is racist?” she asked “Because truly you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface at Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid, that was okay as long as you were dressing up as like a character.”
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