Sarah Silverman Slammed for Blackface After Criticizing Kanye West's Tweet

Comedian Sarah Silverman is being slammed online for wearing blackface in a 2007 comedy sketch after criticizing a tweet by Kanye West.

In an episode of her former Comedy Central show The Sarah Silverman Program titled "Face Wars," Silverman's character donned dark face paint to see whether it is more difficult to be Black or Jewish in American society.

"I look like the beautiful Queen Latifah," she said in the skit at the time, adding, "I'm Black today."

During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen in 2015, the now 51-year-old said the move was "really aggressively stupid."

"I tweeted it when Twitter was new and the people who followed me watched that show and it was from that show," she said of an image from the sketch. "Now it's forever there and it looks… it's totally racist out of context and I regret that."

In 2018, Silverman told GQ Magazine she doesn't "stand by the blackface sketch."

"I'm horrified by it, and I can't erase it," she said. "I can only be changed by it and move on."

The New Hampshire native added that she thought she was "dealing with racism by using racism."

Looking back, however, it made her "feel yucky," she told the outlet. "All I can say is that I'm not that person anymore."

While appearing on The Bill Simmons Podcast a year later, Silverman revealed she was fired from a movie after her blackface photo resurfaced, though she did not specify which one.

"I didn't fight it. They hired someone else who is wonderful but who has never stuck their neck out. It was so disheartening. It just made me real, real sad, because I really kind of devoted my life to making it right."

While chatting with the sports analyst, Silverman discussed the idea of "cancel culture," a movement that refers to publicly rejecting or boycotting someone because of their current or past views or actions.

"It's like, if you're not on board, if you say the wrong thing, if you had a tweet once, everyone is, like, throwing the first stone," she said. "It's so odd. It's a perversion. It's really, 'Look how righteous I am and now I'm going to press refresh all day long to see how many likes I get in my righteousness.'"

On Saturday, West, who legally changed his name to Ye, appeared to post antisemitic messages on social media. Instagram and Twitter later suspended his accounts.

The rapper used Instagram to accuse Diddy, real name Sean Combs, of being controlled by Jewish people.

He then tweeted in a now-deleted post: "I'm a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up, I'm going to death con 3 On Jewish People. The funny thing is I actually can't be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also. You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda."

In response, Silverman took to her own Twitter to condemn Ye's comments.

"Kanye threatened the Jews yesterday on twitter and it's not even trending," she shared. "Why do mostly only Jews speak up against Jewish hate? The silence is so loud."

However, people were quick to criticize Silverman's message, pointing out that her past isn't squeaky clean.

"Sit down. Plenty of people have spoken more about what he said than you have about what you did," one person tweeted, while posting a photo of the writer in blackface—which has since garnered more than 7,000 likes.

"Black people have been calling him out for ages," another said alongside the same pic. "But you were too busy thinking blackface was funny."

At the time of publication, the comment had racked up nearly 500 likes.

Another tweet, referring to the contentious image said: "Sarah Silverman... I've seen a huge number of Black creators over on TikTok making videos critiquing Kanye on the specific subject. We need you to be more thoughtful about what you're calling out and who you're calling out. This is not helpful."

Silverman's representative told Newsweek the actress is declining to comment at this time.

Update 10/11/22, 10:02 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include Silverman's representative's response.