Sunday night's Emmys looked different than it usually does, with COVID-19 denying the awards show a live audience. But to many viewers it sounded largely the same as past years, with presenters choosing to get political. At one point in the program, host Jimmy Kimmel invited "Blackish" actor Anthony Anderson onstage. Anderson lamented that, had it not been for the pandemic, this year's Emmys would have been "the blackest ever," judging by the record number of black nominees.
"It would have been Howard University homecoming black," Anderson said. "It would have been, 'you fit the description' black."
He then urged Kimmel to chant "Black Lives Matter" with him, and he obliged.
"Louder Jimmy!" Anderson said. "Say it, so that Mike Pence can hear it."
Errol Webber, a black conservative who's running for Congress in California's 37th district, said that the phrase was rich coming from a guy who dressed up in blackface on more than one occasion. Kimmel dressed in blackface for a few different impersonations on the Comedy Central series "The Man Show," including Oprah Winfrey and Karl Malone.
"This is just such a joke at this point," Webber wrote.
This is just such a joke at this point.
— Errol Webber For Congress (CA-37) (@ErrolWebber) September 21, 2020
Jimmy Kimmel - a dude who did blackface, did up his whole body "black," and spoke mockingly in "ebonics" for comedy is now chanting "Black Lives Matter."
Not to mention Anthony Anderson’s cringeworthy rant about “whitesplaining”. #Emmys pic.twitter.com/IfYGXQWZFE
Kimmel attempted a sorry in a statement in June: "There is nothing more important to me than your respect, and I apologize to those who were genuinely hurt or offended by the makeup I wore or the words I spoke."
But to many, like Webber, Kimmel's statement did little to correct the wrong and only made him a hypocrite onstage last night.
Webber has been critical of the Black Lives Matter movement for promoting the "disruption" of the nuclear family, and for ignoring heinous crimes against black Trump supporters.