An Oklahoma City news anchor issued an apology after she compared her Black male colleague to a gorilla on live television.
Last Thursday, KOCO morning anchor Alex Housden told James Hackett, at the end of a segment about a gorilla, that it resembled him.
“Kind of looks like you,” Housden said.
On Friday, a teary-eyed Housden, extended an apology to Hackett.
“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,” she continued, adding that Hackett has been “one of my best friends over the past year and a half, and I would never do anything on purpose to hurt you.”
“I love our community and I want you all to know, from the bottom of my heart, I apologize for what I said. I know it was wrong,” she concluded.
Haskett accepted the apology and noted he was friends with Housden outside of work, but the words did cut deep.
“Coming out of this, I want this to be a teachable moment. The lesson here is that words matter, there’s no doubt about that. We’re becoming a more diverse country, and there’s 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. We have to find a way to replace those words with love and words of affirmation as well,” Haskett said.
Unfortunately, Haskett didn’t tell her to take those white tears elsewhere.