This week, the star of NBC, an American TV channel, the 47-year-old Megyn Kelly, a bright blonde and mother of three, who was among the hundred most influential people in the United States, was popped out from her job like a cork. Kelly worked as an anchor under a contract that earned her $25 million per year. Now for early dismissal, she expects to receive a sum ranging from $50 to $70 million. But things are still bad.
Both the TV channel and the Hollywood production company have broken off relations with her. It means that the TV star has instantly become an outcast. All of this happened because Megyn Kelly said an inoffensive, in our opinion, remark on-air, regretting that white Americans can't put on blackface for the playful holiday of Halloween.
This comment, followed by her dismissal, is a reason for us to continue the topic of restrictions on the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression, which apply all around the world. Last Sunday, we talked about the impermissibility in Russia of comedies set against the background the Siege of Leningrad. Now let's look at the example of what's impermissible in the USA. The clip given above was fateful for Megyn Kelly because she mentioned blackface. They were talking about Halloween in the studio. Its meaning is to dress up or make up yourself as scary as possible to scare away evil spirits. The traditional church doesn't encourage this holiday. But still, some celebrates it on the final night of October as we celebrate Maslenitsa, inherited from the pagans, or Women's Day, from Clara Zetkin.
Returning to blackface. It's an American term. Blackface is when a white person paints his face black while emphasizing his make-up with bright exaggerated lips. It seems that there's nothing bad about this. Moreover, Megyn Kelly made an objection that, on the contrary, it would be good if black people could paint their faces white. This would be balanced.
But Megyn Kelly was accused of something terrible — of racism. You can't work on American TV with such a stigma. Not a single person in the United States commented on Megyn Kelly’s rapid dismissal from the standpoint of freedom of speech, censorship, and so on. No one remembered the First Amendment of the American Constitution, guaranteeing the freedom of speech. The dismissed anchor didn't defend her constitutional rights. She just apologized. And she packed her stuff. This happened due to the fact that she allowed the possibility of white people to wear blackface makeup. If we go deeper, this isn't about makeup.
This is about the American cultural standards. Some elements there are sacrosanct. It's difficult to predict. The blonde became a victim of the very political correctness that she cultivated herself. It's an ungrateful exercise to judge who is right in this situation. What's important here is the fact that American society has internal prohibitions, boundary lines, which you must not cross This restricts the freedom of speech.
When someone says that we should not have internal, that is, public prohibitions, for example, with regard to the Siege of Leningrad, then this is so cheap. We're talking about our cultural standards.
