Tina Fey under fire

A conservative black group asked the Kennedy Center on Friday to rescind a prestigious comedy prize awarded to Tina Fey a decade ago following the comedian's recent blackface controversy. Project 21, a branch of the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research, said the center has "not received a proper return on its ill-advised investment" and should immediately revoke Fey's 2010 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The actress made headlines this week after asking NBC to pull from streaming services and television four episodes of her hit comedy show "30 Rock" because they featured actors in blackface. "We are not trying to cancel Tina Fey. Tina Fey cancelled herself when she asked Hulu to purge offensive episodes of '30 Rock,' calling the fruits of her creativity 'ugliness,'" Project 21 member Horace Cooper said in a letter. "We are simply alerting the Kennedy Center — which has acted in the past to protect itself and the integrity of the Twain Prize — to do so again in light of Tina Fey's admission," he wrote. The former "Saturday Night Live" cast member joins a growing list of white celebrities who are apologizing for their past behavior in the wake of sweeping protests against racism across the country. Fellow comedians Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, for instance, recently apologized for wearing blackface in the 1990s. In a note to streaming services, Fey said taking those "30 Rock" episodes out of circulation is a step to "do better in regards to race in America." "I understand now that 'intent' is not a free pass for white people to use these images. I apologize for pain they have caused," she wrote. "Going forward, no comedy-loving kid needs to stumble on these tropes and be stung by their ugliness. I thank NBC Universal for honoring this request." In 2018, the Kennedy Center rescinded two awards it had given Bill Cosby after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman — a lifetime achievement award from 1998 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from 2009. At the time, the center's board members said Cosby's conviction had "overshadowed" his career accomplishments. Project 21, which once defended the disgraced comedian against "opportunistic" accusers, also noted that Fey's problems with race go beyond "30 Rock." The 50-year-old writer and producer has yet to address a similar controversy involving her Netflix show "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," which features white actress Jane Krakowski portraying a Native American woman pretending to be white. The Kennedy Center did not immediately return a request for comment Friday morning.