Watch ‘SNL’ Educate Virginia Politicians About Blackface

By Sameer Rao Feb 11, 2019

As chaos swirls around several Virginia politicians’ predelictions for Blackface and Whitewashing, a new survey from Pew Research Center reports that 34 percent of all United States adults (including 39 percent of all White ones) think that darkening your face for a racist caricature is acceptable. "Saturday Night Live" lampooned this state of affairs in a sketch from this weekend’s (February 9) episode, in which host and musical guest Halsey starred alongside several of the cast’s majority-White repertory players. They portray a group of clueless Virginia leaders whose "confusion" about Blackface and entitled justification of the practice ("But it was the ’80s!") pushes their Black colleague (Kenan Thompson) to the edge. Watch his lesson go over their heads above.