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As temperatures were dropping into the 70s after a sweltering weekslong heatwave, two white news anchors at Arkansas’ KATV station thought they would celebrate by wearing African-American style hairpieces during their evening weather report.
Little did they know that this spontaneous act of ‘celebration’ would lead to them being suspended from their jobs.
The incident occurred on September 16th when the news anchors Chris May and Barry Brandt wore wigs modeled after Afros, a hairstyle popular in the 1970s, as part of a segment titled “return to the 70s.”
May even shared a Twitter photo of them wearing the wigs which was later deleted.
This stunt immediately caught the attention of African American activist Dr. Anika Whitfield who wrote that having a “European American man” wear an Afro wig perpetuated systemic racism.
John Seabers, Vice President and Group Manager for Sinclair Broadcast Group (the parent company of KATV) responded with an apology and said swift action had been taken to hold those responsible accountable.
As a result, both May and Brandt were indefinitely suspended from their positions at KATV which they had held for over 20 years along with their boss Nick Genty who was fired from his post as News Director.
Seabers also appeared on Zoom call with Whitfield to apologize for what happened and was joined by Blaise Labbe, Regional News Director who was temporarily filling Genty’s role while searching for another replacement.
He called it an “abhorrent” act adding that staff had gone through six weeks of racial sensitivity training prior to this incident occurring which made it all the more disappointing for him personally.
KATV has since pledged to take measures so that such incidents do not occur again in future by implementing further training related to sensitivity and workplace conduct as well as working towards adding more African Americans in its news roster according to a spokesperson statement released following these events.
However, not everyone felt offended by this stunt with some comments saying everything isn’t racism while others pointed out how there were thousands of white guys sporting ugly afros back in 80s & 90s so why are people making such big deal out of something like this?
