Thursday, July 25, 2024

"Colored" Rears Its Ugly Head- Or Not



This tweet is fine- well, sort of- if accurate.


 Maybe not, however, as

A clip that went viral on X, formerly Twitter, shows Fox & Friends hosts discussing Harris’ having not given a sit-down media interview yet, with Kilmeade arguing that the vice president had instead chosen to address a “college sorority” — referring to her plans to address the historically Black sorority Zeta Phi Beta at its annual convention in Indianapolis on Wednesday in one of her first campaign stops.

A social media post by independent Fox News watchdog Bad Fox Graphics on X, however, shared the video and misquoted Kilmeade’s comment, claiming instead that he had said “colored sorority.”

Afterward, Democratic National Committee chairperson Jaime Harrison posted his own tweet criticizing the remark of the Fox News host and

A number of journalists shared the claim as well, including Politico Playbook writer Eugene Daniels, who later deleted his tweet and noted that a Fox representative had reached out to correct the accusation. “Eugene Daniels’ now deleted tweet completely misquoted and unnecessarily maligned Brian Kilmeade who clearly said college sorority,” Fox News said in a statement.

Fox also referred Mediaite to a rebuttal by Kilmeade’s co-host Lawrence Jones who was sitting beside him in the studio during the moment, and confirmed that his co-host said “college.”

The right-wing Jones went too far, though, when he "slammed Harrison for being 'so damn dishonest." 

Harrison wasn't being dishonest; he jumped to a conclusion, probably a wrong one. 

Listening to the video carefully, most individuals would hear "college." However, Kilmeade seems to pronounce the "o" in "college" slightly differently (a very subtle difference) than it typically is. It sounds more like the "o" in "colored" than in "college." I don't discount the possibility that Kilmeade was thinking "colored," thought better of it, and switched to "college." Nor is it impossible that he always intended to say "college" but for whatever reason was thinking of the other word. 

So Jaime Harrison very likely was mistaken, but not dishonest, for thinking the Fox News host had said "colored." That would have been totally inappropriate, referring to a "colored sorority." One should never say "colored sorority" any more than he should say "people of color." Really.



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