US news anchor tearfully apologises after comparing black colleague to ape
When a video of a baby gorilla appeared on screen, Housden turned to her black co-anchor and said that the ape 'kind of looks like you'.
When a video of a baby gorilla appeared on screen, Housden, who is white, turned to her black co-anchor, Jason Hackett, and said that the ape “kind of looks like you,” NBC reported. Image: Twitter
A television news anchorwoman in the US apologised on-air after comparing her black colleague to a gorilla, NBC News reported on Tuesday.
Alex Housden of KOCO 5 News in Oklahoma City made the remark last Thursday during a segment on an ape whose handler was running the local zoo’s Instagram for the day.
When a video of a baby gorilla appeared on screen, Housden, who is white, turned to her black co-anchor, Jason Hackett, and said that the ape “kind of looks like you,” NBC reported.
Imagine coming into work and your co-worker tells you that you look like an ape on National TV SMH….I can't make this up! @alexhousden_ should be ashamed of herself for that remark. @koconews obviously felt it was ok bc she's back on air…wow! pic.twitter.com/Q7JLQxU97v
— El Crumb (@Coppinalltheyzy) August 27, 2019
The following day, a tearful Housden apologised to Hackett, saying: “I said something yesterday that was inconsiderate, it was inappropriate, and I hurt people.
“I want you all to know from the bottom of my heart, I apologise for what I said. I know it was wrong and I am so sorry.”
White TV anchor Alex Housden apologizes on air for saying her black KOCO TV co-anchor, Jason Hackett, looks like a gorilla at the Oklahoma City Zoo.pic.twitter.com/4N1BBs8o4K
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 27, 2019
Hackett accepted her apology, but acknowledged that the words “cut deep for me.”
“I want this to be a teachable moment and that lesson here is that words, words matter,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that.”
The incident comes amid heightened racial tensions in the US following a series of remarks by Republican President Donald Trump directed at lawmakers from the Democratic opposition that have been criticised as racist.
The president in July said four Democratic lawmakers of color should “go back” to where they came from, then later called Baltimore, a majority-black city, a “dangerous & filthy place.”
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