Jimmy Fallon took time out of show this week to address a controversial moment in his career history.
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A few weeks ago, footage resurfaced of Jimmy Fallon doing an impression of comedian Chris Rock while in blackface.
Jimmy apologized for the decision on Twitter, writing, “I am very sorry for making this unquestionably offensive decision and thank all of you for holding me accountable.”
However, on June 1st, Jimmy again acknowledged the decision and revealed he had been given advice to remain silent on the issue.
“Seeing what is going on in our country, I’m not going to have a normal show tonight — I’m going to have a different show,” Jimmy began his show.
“I’m going to start this personally, and then expand out, because that’s where we all need to start,” Jimmy continued. “With ourselves, and looking at ourselves in the mirror. And I had to really examine myself in the mirror this week, because a story came out about me on SNL , doing an impression of Chris Rock in blackface.”
Jimmy explained he was “horrified” by the story.
“Not at the fact that people were trying to cancel me, or cancel the show, which is scary enough, but the thing that haunted me the most was how do I say, ‘I love this person, I respect this guy more than I respect most humans, I am not a racist, I don’t feel this way,'” he said.
“And instead, what I kept getting advised was to just stay quiet and to not say anything. And that’s the advice because we’re all afraid.”
“So I thought about it, and I realized that I can’t not say, ‘I’m horrified and I’m sorry and I’m embarrassed.’ What that small gesture did for me was break my own silence, and then what I started to do is talk to some experts, some of which are here tonight and this week, and I realized that the silence is the biggest crime that white guys like me, and the rest of us, are doing.”
“We need to say something.”
“We need to keep saying something. And we need to stop saying ‘That’s not okay’ more than just one day on Twitter.”
You can watch his impactful speech for yourself here.
