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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWTAM fires anchor who referred to Kamala Harris as 'colored'
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- WTAM 1100 has fired an anchor who referred to Sen. Kamala Harris as the nation’s “first colored vice presidential candidate” in a news promo Wednesday night.
“We are aware of the reference made on WTAM by Kyle Cornell,” Ray Davis, the station’s program and promotions director said in a statement. “We take this matter very seriously and addressed it immediately. The term used is extremely offensive and does not align with our station’s core values and commitment to the communities we serve. He is no longer with WTAM.”
n a news teaser that aired during the station’s broadcast of the Cleveland Indians game, Cornell said, “The U.S. officially has its first colored vice presidential candidate. More coming up after the game on Newsradio WTAM 1100 Cleveland.” Audio of the clip was posted to social media and went viral.
In an interview with WKYC 3News, Cornell said the comment “wasn’t meant to be malicious or in any sort of way trying to defamate the character of anyone.”
“That was never the goal and, again, I am truly sorry,” he said.
https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2020/08/wtam-fires-anchor-who-referred-to-kamala-harris-as-colored.html?fbclid=IwAR3j-N_DZLdI1csWJq85-xA6INGTI44D6fbf6GrLqu6Ha15KgqAkJB6Arp8
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MontanaMama
(24,722 posts)He will have a job at Fox in 3 - 2 - 1....
RockRaven
(19,380 posts)I'm just curious, but genuinely so.
Ms. Toad
(38,643 posts)I thought it might have been an older person who was at least had heard/used the term when it was in popular use. I was wrong.
Celerity
(54,410 posts)
RhodeIslandOne
(5,042 posts)For christ's sakes, he wrote that as news copy?
hlthe2b
(113,973 posts)brush
(61,033 posts)He needs to go just for being so outdated.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)Probably too busy burying his head in his ass.
Marie Marie
(11,314 posts)thought that they were being decent because they didn't use the N-word.
brush
(61,033 posts)Just use black or African American/Indian American like everyone else in the world does in referring to Senator Harris.
Ms. Toad
(38,643 posts)
Maeve
(43,457 posts)Remembering a scene from ? The Jeffersons, maybe ? Where an older uncle of the young man was using it to refer to himself instead of using "Afro-American" and saying he'd fought to reach that term. (There's another old term!)
Person of Color should be that speaker's "go-to" if he wanted to acknowledge her Asian side as well, given his age. But she identifies as Black, so that would have been more correct, agreed.
nocoincidences
(2,489 posts)I don't think that's a word.
He doesn't sound too bright.
Chellee
(2,300 posts)We don't use it often in the US. But in a different story they quoted him as saying he wasn't trying to "decimate" her character. So, 
https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/cleveland/wtam-fires-broadcaster-for-using-term-colored-for-kamala-harris/95-c4b361a4-35b8-4dc6-a589-f460e770b090
PCIntern
(28,369 posts)
BlueSpot
(1,303 posts)Googled the story. I don't know how to grab a pic from a video but here ya go. https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/local/cleveland/wtam-fires-broadcaster-for-using-term-colored-for-kamala-harris/95-c4b361a4-35b8-4dc6-a589-f460e770b090]
Being an old fart is not excuse for this fellow.
LuvNewcastle
(17,821 posts)necessarily offensive. It's the "C" in NAACP. I hear people saying 'women of color' all the time, and that seems to be considered correct. I don't know how this incident was handled with the man's firing, if he was fired, but I would have given him another chance. The term is a bit ambiguous as far as being offensive. Maybe there was something else in the man's past behavior that made them less forgiving in this instance.
qazplm135
(7,654 posts)I'm going to guess no so maybe you should just sit out a discussion on whether we find the term colored offensive.
LuvNewcastle
(17,821 posts)I remember when it was considered proper to call people 'colored.' I wouldn't call someone colored because I know plenty of black people who probably wouldn't like it, but if I did I think they're reaction would most likely be to laugh about it. Their reaction wouldn't be anything like it would be if I called people ni--ers. I'm not saying black people like being called colored, but I don't think it's nearly as serious as a lot of other things.
qazplm135
(7,654 posts)And yes you should recognize that just because you have an opinion doesn't mean you are qualified to give an opinion on every subject. You don't get to tell Black people what they should be offended by. Stop talking, listen.
Ms. Toad
(38,643 posts)and quite different from people of color. No black person I know would laugh at it, as it.
Here's an assist: https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/dahleen-glanton/ct-dahleen-glanton-colored-email-reading-list-20200304-utx7geiwm5hupa3t7w6xr3xqn4-story.html
FoxNewsSucks
(11,704 posts)and didn't realize it was considered offensive.
Awsi Dooger
(14,565 posts)They weren't racist at all and it wasn't meant as offensive. This was way back in the '60s and into the '70s. My nana would very matter of factly say something like, "That nice colored man who lives near Publix..."
I don't hear it anymore but this immediately struck me as not nearly the same level as that Reds announcer who not only used a slang term for gays but he said it in a hateful tone and it was obvious he uses that type of language all the time.
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)
TeamPooka
(25,577 posts)Time to shush
whistler162
(11,155 posts)the rappers
TeamPooka
(25,577 posts)obamanut2012
(29,369 posts)
Kind of Blue
(8,709 posts)that you don't keep abreast with context deeply-rooted in current black culture.
As far as the NAACP, the C in the title was cultural norm in 1909 when the organization was founded. Tim Stevens, president of the NAACP Pittsburgh branch from 1994-2004, addressed the C in 2016 and I've read similar statements from members. He said that
He said one of the main reasons people were hesitant was because of what the acronym NAACP— National Association for the Advancement of Colored People—stood for.
At that time Blacks didn’t like to be called “colored,” and he originally sought for a name change of the organization. He later changed his mind.
“In my lifetime I’ve been Colored, Negro, Afro-American, Black and African American, if the NAACP change its name every time Black folks were called something different, we would not know what the NAACP was called,” Stevens said.
He said that the organization would have lost its identity in the name of trying to maintain a politically correct moniker, and that it served the NAACP better to stick with its past history by making it relative to current issues. “I didn’t want to spend too much time on what the words stood for and the name, but rather what are the deeds—the functionality and the relevancy at that time and moving forward,”
Context matters, not just opinions from the dominate culture that we know shapes dangerous policies.
TeamPooka
(25,577 posts)Response to RandySF (Original post)
Post removed
obamanut2012
(29,369 posts)You actually sat down and wrote a post decrying poor you having to call POC their preferred term? You actually took time to say that. "
As some enlightened person posted above, it's the NAACP. If the condemned instead said, "person of color" we wouldn't be having these idiotic heart palpitations."
Guess what? My grandparents are very old. They don't say "colored" or snark about POC.
I am afraid to ask what you call LGBT+ folks.
mitch96
(15,805 posts)The white pilot asks about the word "colored"
One of the Negro pilots responds...
“When you get upset, when you get mad, you turn red, right? When you get envoius, or sick, you turn green. When you become cowardly, you turn yellow;
and ya'll got the nerve to call us colored?”
m