LISTEN: Broadcaster Calls Kamala Harris ‘First Colored Vice Presidential Candidate’ on Air, Later Fired

Cleveland radio anchor Kyle Cornell has been fired after calling Sen. Kamala Harris the “first colored vice presidential candidate” on the air during a baseball game this week.

During a Wednesday night broadcast for the Cleveland Major League Baseball team that calls itself the “Indians,” Cornell delivered a news promo in which he said “The U.S. officially has its first colored vice presidential candidate. More coming up after the game on Newsradio WTAM 1100 Cleveland.”

Senator Harris is the first Black woman to be part of a major party ticket.

Cornell was fired, and later apologized.

In its coverage of the incident, Fox News noted that “colored” is “considered an outdated term by many people who associate it with slavery and the Jim Crow era of racial segregation and disenfranchisement,” but added “the description continues to be used by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), a prominent civil rights organization that was founded in 1909.”

However, in an interview with WKYC News 3’s Tiffany Tarpley, Cornell appeared to acknowledge frequent past use of the term “colored,” while denying he’s a racist.

“I could have definitely worded that differently, though I have heard it in different areas, it doesn’t make it right that I said it and I take full responsibility for it and know that I have to learn, like I have to learn okay, no I can’t do that anymore, I cannot use that anymore because it is offensive and it’s not right,” Cornell told Tarpley.

“Are you racist?” Tarpley asked, to which Cornell replied “Absolutely not.”

As Tarpley noted in her report, Cornell’s incident occurred at nearly the same time Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Thom Brennaman was destroying his career by saying “fag” into a hot mic live on the air.

Listen above via WTAM.