Alex Housden, a TV anchor in Oklahoma is under fire after she said her Black co-anchor, Jason Hackett, looked like a gorilla at the Oklahoma City Zoo. The pair was doing a segment on about the zoo and a video captured of a young gorilla when Housden told Hackett that the primate "kind of looks like you."
The next day Housden tearfully addressed the comments: "I said something yesterday that was inconsiderate, it was inappropriate, and I hurt people, {...] And I want you to know, I understand how much I hurt you out there and how much I've hurt you. I love you so much, and you have been one of my best friends for the past year and a half. And I would never do anything on purpose to hurt you. And 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 and I am so sorry."
Hackett accepted Housden's apology on-air but remarked that the comment was nonetheless hurtful. "It cut deep for me and it cut deep for a lot of you in the community," Hackett said. He said he hopes for this to be a "teachable moment" as it pertains to racial stereotypes. "We have to understand each other's backgrounds and the words that hurt, the words that cut deep."
Source: youtube.com
