An Oklahoma TV anchor delivered an on-air apology following her comments which compared her black cohost to a gorilla. Following her original comments, there was a plethora of calls for the female TV host to be sacked; however, it would appear that this is not to be the case.
Alex Housden appeared alongside her co-anchor Jason Hackett to apologize following the offensive comments she made during a broadcast on August 22nd.
The emotional apology has received mixed reactions, with the majority of the public still calling for her to be fired.
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The comments themselves were made during a segment about a young gorilla at a local zoo, during which Housden said to Mr. Hackett, “kind of looks like you!”
The racist comments came at the end of the lighthearted segment and following Ms Housden’s comments, Mr. Hackett awkwardly replies, “He kind of does, actually, yeah.”
Ms Housden appeared on the show the next day alongside Mr. Hackett and said, “I’m here this morning because I want to apologise, not only to my co-worker Jason, but to our entire community.”
She went on to say:
“I said something yesterday that was inconsiderate, it was inappropriate and I hurt people. I want you to know I understand how much I hurt you all out there and how much I hurt you.
“I would never do anything on purpose to hurt you.”
During the apology Mr. Hackett sat next to Ms Housden, and though he accepted her apology on air he did emphasize that, “What she said yesterday was wrong.”
Mr. Hackett continued:
“It cut deep for me, and it cut deep for a lot of you in the community. Coming out of this, I want this to be a teachable moment. The lesson here is that words matter.
“We are becoming a more diverse country and there is no excuse. We have to understand the stereotypes, we have to understand each other’s backgrounds and the words that hurt, the words that cut deep.”
However, the viewers of the show and social media users were not convinced by the apology, and Ms Housden has still received backlash online for her offensive comments.
Since the comments were made Ms Housden has had to remove her Facebook profile.
KOCO 5 eventually made a single statement to NBC regarding Ms Housden’s comments.
The station said to NBC :
“The apology by Alex and Jason’s acceptance and his comments about the broader issue are the only public comment necessary.”
The majority of reactions to the apology have taken aim at both Ms Housden and the network.
People believe that they are not taking the comments seriously enough.
There have also been many calls to boycott the network until Alex Housden is removed from her position.
People don’t believe that something so offensive could be said by accident.
Despite the immense number of calls for her to be fired, for the moment at least it seems like Ms Housden will remain in her position.
Also, based upon the statement released by the network the NBC, it would appear as though they are not going to change their mind on he issue.
However, if the calls keep coming then they may be forced to reconsider.
