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8 Feb, 2019 14:51

‘The View’ host under fire for blackface costume (VIDEO)

‘The View’ host under fire for blackface costume (VIDEO)

A clip from ABC's popular chat show ‘The View’ has resurfaced amid the ongoing media uproar over blackface costumes. It shows the panel discussing host Joy Behar’s “beautiful African woman” costume.

Behar introduced a photo of herself in an old Halloween costume where she dressed as a “beautiful African woman” at a Halloween party in the 1970s when she was 29 years old, in a segment in which the panel were discussing curly hair which aired back in 2016.

Amid the current media firestorm over blackface costumes worn by Democrat politicians in the past, The Wrap media editor Jon Levine seized the moment and shared the controversial clip (and the reaction to it) on Twitter.

In the segment, Raven-Symoné, a former co-host of Behar’s, asks, “Joy, are you black?” to which Behar responded that she was wearing makeup “a little bit darker than my skin.”

Neither ABC nor Behar have made an official statement on the current controversy.

Many people on Twitter came to Behar’s defense after the clip emerged.

However, others decried the hypocrisy of such comments, highlighting the case of Megyn Kelly who was unceremoniously fired from NBC after controversial remarks where she questioned whether blackface was indeed that offensive.

The clip was posted as the Democratic party in Virginia grapples with the ongoing controversy surrounding Governor Ralph Northam's 1984 yearbook photo which features two students, one in blackface and the other in a KKK robe.

Northam initially apologized for the ill-advised costume choice but then reversed course the very next day, insisting that he misremembered and didn't wear blackface in that particular photo but had worn it when dressing up as Michael Jackson on another occasion.

Also on rt.com Virginia governor admits to KKK/blackface yearbook photo, refuses to resign

Meanwhile, Virginia's Democrat Attorney General Mark Herring, who initially called on Northam to resign, has since released a statement in which he admitted that he too had worn a blackface costume in college.

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