Kristi Capel: Cleveland Fox Anchor Uses A Racial Slur To Describe Lady Gaga’s Oscars Performance
News anchor Kristi Capel has apologized after making a rather unfortunate choice of words to describe Lady Gaga’s appearance during the Academy Awards Sunday night, Cleveland Scene is reporting.
During Fox affiliate WJW’s (Cleveland) morning news Monday, Capel used the racial slur “jigaboo” to describe Lady Gaga’s Sound of Music tribute – which, by the way, has been hailed as one of the highlights of the broadcast.
Videos of the slur have been posted on YouTube – and just as quickly taken down, since the broadcast is copyrighted and owned by WJW. But here’s what Capel said:
“It’s hard to really hear her voice with all that… jigaboo music.”
Oops.
Nervous laughter from her African-American co-anchor Wayne Dawson follows.
According to Dictionary, the term “jigaboo” is an “insulting name for ‘black person'” dating back to at least 1909.
Almost immediately, Capel’s choice of words generated controversy on Twitter.
@Kristi_Capel just used the word “jigaboo” on air. Even our news anchors are racist in Cleveland. Wow.
— Tamir Rice (@crtx216) February 23, 2015
SSSSSSOOOOO @fox8news news just hiring anybody? anchors making up words instead they are really lowkey racist @Kristi_Capel
— Assata Shakur (@LocsWithoutKeys) February 23, 2015
For her part, Kristi Capel later apologized, via Twitter, for using the racial slur, claiming she didn’t know that it meant anything bad. However, for reasons that are not clear, as of this post, the tweet has since been deleted. Fortunately, Cleveland Scene managed to save a screen shot of the tweet.
In fact, not only her apology tweet, but all references to the racial slur at all, have been removed from Kristi Capel’s official Twitter feed.
Regardless, angry Twitter users are not buying Kristi’s apology, or her claim that she didn’t know what the word “jigaboo” means.
Your apology isn’t genuine! Your copying and pasting this to everyone I WANT ANSWERS! Why do you still have a job? @Kristi_Capel
— Assata Shakur (@LocsWithoutKeys) February 23, 2015
@Kristi_Capel @LocsWithoutKeys REALLY? Why use words you don’t know the meaning of? Journalism not your forte!
— Joseph R Dixon (@chozn4service) February 23, 2015
As of this post, neither Kristi Capel herself, nor her employer, WJW, have publicly commented on Capel’s use of the racial slur.
Do you think Kristi Capel needs to be fired for inadvertently (as she claims) using a racial slur? Share your thoughts in the Comments below.
[Images courtesy of: YouTube]