Last Thursday a shocking display of racism spewed out of the mouth of a white Oklahoma City news anchor after a segment about the local zoo prompted her to compare her Black co-anchor to a gorilla.
KOCO-TV white news anchor, Alex Housden apologizes after comparing her co-anchor, Jason Hackett to a gorilla. https://t.co/8h7u9jGo1Tpic.twitter.com/NmztJOEd5U
— Complex (@Complex) August 28, 2019
“I want you all to know from the bottom of my heart I apologize for what I said,” Housden continued. “I know it was wrong, and I am so sorry.”
And while he initially agreed with her ridiculous statement, Hackett did express that he too was deeply offended and hurt.
“What she said yesterday was wrong,” Hackett said. “It cut deep for me, and it cut deep for a lot of you in the community.”
“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,” Hackett said.
White TV anchor Alex Housden apologizes on air for saying her black KOCO TV co-anchor, Jason Hackett, looks like a gorilla at the Oklahoma City Zoo.pic.twitter.com/4N1BBs8o4K
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) August 27, 2019
Hackett is not revolutionary or alone in her approach. For centuries white women have escaped responsibility and accountability by using their tears as weaponry to absolve them of the duty of an apology.
From the office space to the sidewalk, white women often turn on the waterworks when they are presented with their offenses, swaying the moment into a consolation session which then completely leaves the elephant in the room unaddressed. And that elephant usually goes by the names “white supremacy” and/or “racism.”
Anytime a white woman does something abhorrently racist on a public platform, we can usually locate her through a trail of desperate, entitled, gaslight tears.
These moments can be polarizing. If you’re at the receiving end, you can walk away with feelings of depletion and frustration, or you may actually lose your life.
It did not stop Carolyn Bryant Donham from using her tears to falsely accuse a 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till of rape, which led to his violent lynching. And over 60 years later, tears were again used by a white woman named Jennifer Schulte who sought to disrupt a majority Black cookout at a Oakland park.
And the end never justifies the means in these scenarios. In both instances above, neither women lost anything crucial in their stoked fires. They were allowed to carry on at most experiencing a social death, but remained unscathed in the violence they that erupted at the result of their emotions.
