Jimmy Kimmel apologises for sporting blackface in old sketches: 'Many of these are embarrassing'

Popular TV host Jimmy Kimmel apologised for sporting blackface and impersonating NBA player Karl Malone and other Black celebrities back in the 1990s. Kimmel's old videos have resurfaced on the internet amid the Black Lives Matter movement.

Kimmel stated that the delay in the apology came to avoid handing a victory to his foes.

“I apologise to those who were genuinely hurt or offended by the makeup I wore or the words I spoke,” the ABC late-night star said in a statement.

Kimmel’s impersonation of Malone, which he started on radio and then brought to television on Comedy Central, was criticized by Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, among others. The two men feuded on-air and online two years ago when Hannity objected to a Kimmel joke about Melania Trump’s accent.

In his statement, Kimmel said he had never considered his Malone skits would be seen as anything other than an imitation of a fellow human being, “one that had no more to do with Karl’s skin color than it did his bulging muscles and bald head.”

He also said he didn’t consider his impersonations of Black people in racial terms.

“Looking back, many of these sketches are embarrassing, and it is frustrating that these thoughtless moments have become a weapon used by some to diminish my criticisms of social and other injustices,” Kimmel said.

He said he had long been reluctant to address the subject, “as I knew doing so would be celebrated as a victory by those who equate apologies with weakness and cheer for leaders who use prejudice to divide us. That delay was a mistake,” he added.

“I know that this will not be the last I hear of this and that it will be used again to try to quiet me,” he said. “I love this country too much to allow that. I won’t be bullied into silence by those who feign outrage to advance their oppressive and genuinely racist agendas.”

Kimmel's statement comes at a time when the entertainment world is reassessing its content and statements made in the past amid the anti-racism protest that has spread across America.

On Monday, four episodes of the comedy '30 Rock' were pulled from circulation because they featured characters performing in blackface. Previously, another popular host Jimmy Fallon too apologised for a similar sketch he had done back in the 1990s when he was part of 'Saturday Night Live'.