Journalists Of Color Demand Fox News Apologize For Brian Kilmeade Comments

UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc., a "multicultural coalition of national journalism organizations with an outreach to over 10,000 supporters," has issued a petition calling on Fox News and its parent company, News Corp. to take steps to remedy recent offending remarks made by "Fox and Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade on the show's July 8 episode.

The remarks in question came during a discussion of a recent survey that found that married people in Sweden and Finland are less susceptible to the symptoms of Alzheimer's than unmarried people. Kilmeade disregarded the relevancy of the survey for Americans, saying "we [Americans] keep marrying other species and other ethnicities . . . Swedes have pure genes . . . in America we marry everybody..."

WATCH KILMEADE MAKE THAT STATEMENT HERE

UNITY called Kilmeade's statement "beyond silly and worthy of ridicule", based on "the basest of white supremacist ideologies, the notion that white people and non-white people are of different species, with the white race as 'pure.'"

UNITY has called upon Fox News to "issue an immediate apology for Mr. Kilmeade's offensive comments" and "enter into a serious discussion on the program regarding intermarriage and the value of diversity in our society."

The petition is available online here.

Get HuffPost Media On Facebook and Twitter!

Comments

[Quaoar]

Journalists of other species should also demand an apology.

[loax]

This guy is waht happens when two bigots create another!

[huffingt]

I never really worry about id i ots.

[VirginiaJeff]

I hate -- really hate -- to defend this guy, but isn't it likely he was affirming the fact that American's intermarry?

[VirginiaJeff]

(I mean, in a positive sense rather than negative.)

[Sleepyjohns]

I think the issue people are taking with his comments is that by implying that Swedes are pure blooded (wtf) they are healthier. The converse of that assertion is that becuase Americans are intermarrying they are thereby 'dirtying up the gene-pool' and killing off pure races. Teddy Roosevelt made similar arguments at the turn of the last century, and he was by no measure the first to do so. It's basic scientific racism.

[ROlmeda]

No, not in a positive sense. Not unless being referred to as another species is a compliment. And not unless saying we exacerbate the symptoms of dementia through intermarriage is a compliment. It was a baffling, stupid comment. I wish we didn't have to ask for an apology, but sometimes you need to. This is one of those times.

[LaughingMan]

...............intermarry other "species"?

how do you defend that? In the best of senses (i.e. assuming he wasn't referring to bestiality), he was essentially saying that ethnic or non-pure (i.e. minority, non-WASP-Germano-Scandinavian-white) people from other part of the world are of a separate species as the real human beings (i.e. WASP-Germano-Scandinavian-white people), like in Sweden.

Again, how do you defend that? You're probably better off defending his stupidity, and on the basis of his seriously debilitated grammatical and linguistic skills, but on his rational and logic, you're probably stretching it.

[kindGSL]

Plus everyone can see by looking at him that he himself is not a member of this favored, purely 'white' race.

[Criticalthinktank07]

I think he could have articulated his point without the species comment... The guy is an ig norant person disguised as an actual news source.

[regroupthink]

Maybe it's because they have socialized medicine. Fox is Facist, Raciest and unfair to it's (slow class) listeners.

[ebanks84]

This man ain't worth complaining about. He's nothing!

[VigilantOutlaw]

For those of you who don't watch Fox News that much can't really appreciate the humor Brian comes up with at times. This wasn't offensive at all.

[Totto]

That much? Not at all, except when I'm waiting for the oil change at the dealer. What trash.

[vgirl1]

We definitely don't get the humor, and it is not because we don't watch FOX that much.

You must get it because you do. That says alot.

[CantStopUsNow]

Maybe he's right. There were no deseases in America before the white man brought them over. Maybe America should have remained BROWN.

[TokyoCalling]

100% Agree with you!

[ajaba]

The guy's a baboon.

[Totto]

Ah! The other species he referred to.

[timberdoodle]

Fox is likely sponsored by the white supremists so why would they apologize and Rupert wouldn't care as long as he gets more money.

[rsprags]

The sad part is that this guy is from some ethnic group himself as noted by hair and skin color. Self - hatred and passing is very common in America because of the pressure of racism on individuals!
You can't expect this guy to know that what he said is wrong because at News Corp they have created
an atmosphere of racism and this type of insensitive crazy speeches!

[schicklett3]

When are you people going to realize that the talking heads on that news network are racist? They're a republican news network, and republican means racist.
Who do you think the arian nation skin heads are.... they're republicans!

[BabblingBrooks]

Actually Brian's statements were THE OPPOSITE OF WHITE SUPREMACY and he should demand the "journalists of color" study the English language and writing.

[CantStopUsNow]

What does that even mean?

[LaughingMan]

...talk about someone needing to study the English language. 'Babbling' part in his name is apt.

[Darthwave]

You must understand trollish to understand.

[demimckingwoodtx]

a wh it e person with an asian avatar, hummm!!! People of color speak just fine, I notice your children are always trying to get the lingo.

[Ohsnap]

The GOP has became overly blatant in how they cater to the bigots in their party. Oh, and those who put them in office, too.

[DawnLA]

I hope lots of Irish and Italians sign that petition. Those are the groups that apparently Kilmeade thinks are a different species.