A radio station in Cleveland, Ohio, cut ties with a news anchor who referred to Sen. Kamala D. Harris during a recent broadcast as the “first colored vice presidential candidate.”
Kyle Cornell was out of a job within hours of making the remark during a brief news teaser that aired on WTAM 1100 during a Major League Baseball game broadcast Wednesday evening.
“The U.S. officially has its first colored vice presidential candidate,” Mr. Cornell said during the segment. “More coming up after the game on Newsradio WTAM 1100 Cleveland.”
WTAM condemned Mr. Cornell soon afterward and said he was no longer employed with the station.
“We take this matter very seriously and addressed it immediately,” WTAM program director Ray Davis said in a statement Thursday, local news outlets reported. “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.”
Mr. Cornell has since apologized for using the term and said he now understands it to be offensive.
“I could have definitely worded that differently, though I have heard it in different areas, it doesn’t make it right that I said it,” Mr. Cornell told WKYC News 3.
“I take full responsibility for it and know that I have to learn,” he added. “I have to learn okay, no, I can’t do that anymore; I cannot use that anymore because it is offensive and it’s not right.”
Ms. Harris, California Democrat, is the child of immigrants from India and Jamaica and is the first Black woman or woman of color to appear on a major party’s presidential ticket.
Using the term “colored” to describe African Americans is viewed as offensive by many due to its connection to racial segregation laws that discriminated against African Americans.
Its usage was more common when those laws were in place during the “Jim Crow” era that started after the Civil War before it became illegal to discriminate by race in the 1960s.
Indeed, style guidelines issued by The Associated Press and adopted by many news outlets advise only using “colored” in names of organizations or in rare quotations when essential.
The term “people of color” is considered an acceptable term which “broadly identifies individuals who belong to a racial or ethnic minority group,” according to the glossary page on the website Love Has No Labels.
However, the group adds, “[w]hen referring to a specific minority group, it is best to use more specific terms, such as Black or African American. The best term to use is best answered by the person or group of people you are referring to.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.