A white news anchor and a white meteorologist have been suspended indefinitely for wearing so-called afro wigs on the air and their news director was permanently fired. Apparently this was some of that cultural appropriation and system racism we’ve been hearing so much about. Presumably the country is now safe for black people and we won’t have to hear any more about it.
The Daily Mail brings this daily reminder that everything is stupid:
Two white news anchors in Arkansas have been suspended and their boss has been fired after they donned afro wigs in an on-air segment to celebrate the end of a heatwave as temperatures drppped into the 70s.
KATV news station, based in Little Rock, suspended anchor Chris May and meteorologist Barry Brandt for wearing the wigs during the 10pm newscast on September 16…
Their segment, dubbed ‘return to the 70s’ – where on-air personalities sported looks popular in the 1970s – was intended as a way to celebrate a return to 70-degree weather after 90F heat wave all summer and a triple-digit day early in September.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns the station, fired its longtime news director Nick Genty, and indefinitely suspended May and Brandt.
All of this happened, as The Arkansas Times reports, because one woman was offended:
Dr. Anika Whitfield, an African-American activist, was not amused. She called the wigs “Afro wigs.” She said it was a perpetuation of “systemic racism” to have a “European American man” wear an Afro. There were other ways to show styles of the 1970s she said in a letter to station management that she sent to me and others.
Whitfield complained and the next thing you know, 3 people are effectively unemployed. Somehow this story gets dumber. Ad Week reports:
John Seabers, a regional manager for KATV parent company Sinclair Broadcasting, issued an apology last weekend and said he was disappointed because the wig incident followed an intensive six-week training session on racial sensitivity.
But that training apparently didn’t take so as punishment, everyone is going to have to do it again, except of course the dudes that got shit-canned.
“It was determined through our investigation into the recent events at KATV that swift action was important to hold the responsible parties accountable. We are also implementing further training for sensitivity and workplace conduct, in line with our commitment to ensuring events like this don’t happen again,” wrote a KATV spokesman in a groveling apology.
And here’s the thing, that ain’t an afro wig. Black people’s hair is tightly curled like steel wool and what Chris May wore was a simple curly-haired wig:
This was a hair style popular in the 1970s. Anybody remember Leo Sayer?
Or Gene Shalit?
But while we are on the subject of cultural appropriation, how come it’s totally cool for Beyonce to have straight blonde European-style hair?
Or Nicki Minaj?
We will never have a truly equal society as long as these racist black women continue to flaunt their cultural appropriation like that. They should both be canceled like the white guys at KATV if we are all going to be the same.
Or we, as a society, can agree that there is no racial animus in a couple of white guys wearing curly wigs that were popular in the 70’s to celebrate the return of 70 degree temperatures. I’m good with it either way.
