The Problem Of a Radio Anchor Saying “Colored” On-Air

He was fired for it, but that’s not the problem.

You may have seen this show up in your Facebook newsfeed. You may have seen it published in a group discussing and promoting social justice and Black Lives Matter. You may have seen it, for different reasons, posted by your racist cousin — outraged that someone was fired for “nothing.”

In the scope of everything happening in the United States and across the world, it may seem like a small story. Still, it’s indicative of a more significant problem.

Let’s unpack this.

What happened

Kyle Cornell, a 26-year-old anchor for a Cleveland radio station recently referred to vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris as “colored” and was promptly fired for it.

Cornell was quoted on-air as announcing, “The U.S. officially has its first colored vice presidential candidate. More coming up after the game on Newsradio WTAM 1100 Cleveland.”

People were upset. The station wasted no time firing him. Cornell has since apologized, stating he meant no malice in using the term, and he accepts his punishment without question.

Assuming we give Cornell the benefit of the doubt that he is accepting being fired as punishment and learned something from this, it is still alarming that it even happened to begin with.

When I first heard the story, my first thoughts were, “How is that phrase even still a thing in 2020? And why the hell is a 26-year-old using such an old slur?”

Those were my initial reactions.

After a few moments to think about it, the likely answers become even more alarming.

Among some, “colored” is becoming normalized again. Some might even say that it never went away.

What’s the big deal?

It’s a term that dates back to before the Jim Crow era and the so-called “separate but equal” time when segregation was a thing. It’s a phrase long-associated with the disenfranchisement of blacks in America.

America has a long and fraught history with racial justice. It’s an everyday struggle overcoming this. We don’t need backsliding or anything else that makes advancing an equal and just society more difficult.

Using “colored” to describe someone emphasizes Otherness over Humanity. When you dehumanize someone, you make it easier for someone like a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to shoot an unarmed black man in the back seven times at point-blank range right in front of his children. This happened less than 24 hours of this writing.

Denying the humanity of people of color should not be a thing. It should never have been a thing.

Normalization is a huge problem

When some kid thinks it’s okay to use a term with a long-established history of racial hatred — whether out of ignorance or malice — that’s a big problem. It means that the phrase has become normalized to him. And likely normalized for others around him. He may not have been aware of the term’s implications, but he learned to use it from somewhere.

Using that phrase in such a public way, he normalizes it for others outside his immediate circle, and the effects ripple outward.

If we’ve learned anything from the rise of Trumpism, it’s that racism in America never went away. People of color, of course, were already well aware of this. Those of us in our sleepy little bubbles of privilege, however, awoke to a world we didn’t think existed any longer. It was ugly to behold.

Some tried to deny it or explain it away as “economic anxiety” or some other lame excuse.

That only made it worse.

With the ubiquitous presence of smartphones, we see open racism in many forms — subtle, overt, systemic, and violent — marching proudly. Most don’t even have the barely-sparing grace to be ashamed of it.

That’s what happens when you have a President that gives racism air to breathe. And it’s what happens when you normalize seemingly harmless, small aggressions. And it’s just not the President to blame. It’s many of us.

Casual racism never stays casual

It means something that a 26-year-old man felt comfortable to use “colored” on the air. It doesn’t matter if there was known malice behind it. The very fact he thought it was okay to use the term at all is the problem.

He was forced to face the consequences of those actions. If we give Cornell the benefit of the doubt, he’s accepting those actions and, hopefully, learning from them.

The broadcast station was right to act swiftly and decisively.

Too many times, you, instead, see groups go on the defensive and try to shift the problem onto those offended.

The takeaway

If we were to walk away with anything from this story, it’s that racism in any form should not be given a molecule of air or sunlight to thrive.

What gives offense may seem small at first — even inconsequential.

But is it really?

As a nation and a world, we have a long, long way to go to properly address racial and social injustice. There are going to be some distressing bumps along the way. People are going to get hurt.

But, in the long run, it will all be worth it. And we can’t be afraid to not call out casual racism when we see it. Casual racism can quickly become full-throated racism.

And we’ve had more than enough of that.

It’s time to be better.

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