Did a White House Reporter Ask Pope Francis About ‘The Negroes’? Probably Not

Alex GriswoldSep 23rd, 2015, 1:02 pm

The Internet is all abuzz after a reporter seemed to ask Pope Francis to comment on “the Negroes” during his visit of the Oval Office:

https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/646699352862363648?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Reporter asks the pope to "say something about the negroes"wow just wow I'm speechless #PopeInDC #PopeInUS http://t.co/6Nxgr5J4d0

— Bassem Masri (@bassem_masri) September 23, 2015

It’s easy to understand where their impression came from. Listening to the AP video (the question appears towards the end), it sounds a lot like she said “Negroes”:

But some have argued it’s more likely that the reporter, who appeared to speak with an accent, actually said “migrants.”

For one thing, the press credentials for the Pope’s White House visit were extremely limited, with outlets like Buzzfeed being left out entirely. The notion that some crazy racist journalist could sneak his or her way to within feet of an African-American president seems extremely unlikely.

Not to mention, if she did say ‘Negroes,’ Obama seemed to take the sally much more in stride than you’d expect. But more importantly, the White House pool report from reporters on the scene indicate the questioner “asked a question about the Syrian migrant crisis.”

@hughesroland @PhilipinDC Now people are saying it was "migrants" with a French accent "meegrants" not "Negroes"

— David Clinch (@DavidClinchNews) September 23, 2015

@ShaunKing person with a heavy accent, said "the migrants."

— Alex Mallin (@alex_mallin) September 23, 2015

This seems to be a classic example of the McGurk effect, where people who are primed to hear something different can hear the same sounds, but come to radically different conclusions. Remember when half the country was convinced a GOP crowd chanted “Ryan” and the other half of the country thought they said “Romney”? This appears to be a similar situation.

UPDATE (1:28 PM ET): Tommy Christopher points out that reporter appears to be Laura Haim, who works for French TV station Canal+. Haim asked a question during yesterday’s White House briefing, and can be heard pronouncing the word ‘migrant’ the same way.