Māori TV says it plans to help controversial comedian Jimi Jackson "with his journey", amidst a blackface and misogynistic controversy.
Earlier this week, the internet joker, who is set to appear on a show on Māori TV, triggered outrage with a photo of his face in which he wore thick, dark brown make-up to change his complexion, captioning it "Jimi Blackson".
Jackson lashed out at offended commenters, labelling them "c***s" and "sl*ts", among other slurs. He's since taken aim at media coverage of the incident and again defended the photos.
"I'm not racist, f**k I've got heaps of black mates, like black American mates," says Jackson in his video.
"I got Asian mates, I got Indian mates, I got Fijindian mates - that's like Fijian Indian mates. I got all race mates."
Māori TV says the comments were inappropriate and there will be a meeting with Jackson next week.
"We'll be working through with Jimi and his production company and management to help him with his journey, from being a social media superstar with over 800,000 viewers to someone who appears on broadcast TV and the responsibilities that come with that," says Mike Rehu, Māori TV's head of content.
Jackson explains he'd never heard of the term 'blackface' before the controversy, nor its troubled history in US minstrel shows.
He also reiterates that he is Maori, which he is "pretty sure are considered a black race", and was wearing the bronzer for a kapa haka skit on TV.
Jackson refuses to apologise for any offence he has caused, saying the media and the people who accused him of racism should apologise instead.
"Spinoff, Newshub, NZ Herald - hire some real writers, because your articles are shit," he rages.
Taking umbrage with Newshub reporting on his calling commenters "c***s", Jackson states: "I call everyone c***s".
With regards to the misogynistic attack he made on one commenter in particular, Nadezna Walsh, Jackson says he was angry that she had mentioned his family.
Ms Walsh says his comments were "blatant bullying".
"I think maybe the first comment I could have kind of had a chuckle but it was the last sentence I think was uncalled for," she told Māori TV.
"And you would sort of expect that gutter humour from him, but it's all the response from other people and how nasty some of them were that kind of blew my mind."
Jackson has removed that comment, but insists he only did so because he has a TV show coming up.
"The media is trying to make me look bad and when it comes to TV and production, the media does matter," he says.
He emphasises that he "doesn't care" about his obscene remarks or the person they were directed at, but respects the team working on his TV show.
Jackson refers to an article on The Spinoff about the incident as "a load of shit", but jokes about not understanding it.
"I'm not a bully towards women, a 'mis-oag-anyst', whatever the word. I'm not that best at reading like big words and shit like that [sic]," he says.
"Yeah - 'mis-oag-anyst', 'mis-ojist'... whatever. Who gives a shit."
Jackson is working on a series entitled Jimi's World for Maori Television.
His full, uncensored Facebook video is below - warning: contains offensive language.
Newshub.
