NABJ Appalled by Gray TV Affiliate KMOV’s Use of ‘Colored’ on Air

The National Association of Black Journalists released the following statement after an incident in which a St. Louis TV news anchor at KMOV referred to Black homeowners as “colored.”

The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is appalled and disappointed by a recent incident at KMOV, Gray Television’s affiliate in St. Louis. While teasing a story about Black homeowners and appraisals, an anchor referred to the homeowners as “colored.”

It is upsetting that such a slur would make it to air. The term is outdated, offensive and racist. We are concerned that no one in the KMOV newsroom caught this error, and we question KMOV’s editorial process when it comes to cultural awareness.

Given that St. Louis’ population is 43% Black, and the city is no stranger to racial strife, we would hope KMOV would be more sensitive in how it covers the Black community.

While we understand that there have been multiple on-air apologies and KMOV management has met with local leaders, that is not enough. KMOV and Gray TV should retrain their employees on diversity, equity and inclusion issues while investing in recruiting and retaining Black employees on and off-air.

Management at KMOV has reached out to NABJ to learn how to educate the newsroom on issues within the Black community.

“We look forward to these discussions with KMOV’s management,” said NABJ President Ken Lemon and Vice President-Broadcast Walter Smith Randolph. “However, this further shows the fight for equal treatment and fair coverage is not over. We hope these discussions will be fruitful and yield documentable results.”

NABJ will continue to monitor this station and the efforts of Gray TV to enhance its processes and protocols to eliminate this and similar issues.

State of emergency declared in Ferguson

St. Louis County authorities declared a state of emergency Monday as they prepared for a second night of protests marking a year since a police officer killed Ferguson, Missouri, teen Michael Brown.

Few Black Candidates Enter St. Louis Elections: Have Ferguson's Lessons Gone Unnoticed?

“If Ferguson taught us anything, it is the importance of having representative government. Accountability and fairness come from that,” tweeted St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, who is black and gained a national profile by participating in protests and documenting scenes on the ground in Ferguson since the Aug. 9 shooting of Mike Brown by Police Officer Darren Wilson. "Don't feel like you're being represented? Step up. Run for office."

French could not be reached by IBTimes for further comment, but he tweeted Monday that two districts -- Ward 20 and Ward 6 -- have black majorities but no black candidates. Records from the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners from Tuesday morning showed no African-Americans had filed to run since French’s tweets.

Irl Scissors, a lobbyist and former Democratic political consultant based in St. Louis, said ineffective get-out-the-vote efforts and low black-voter registration are some of the barriers black candidates face. In Ferguson, which is 67 percent black, there is only one black city councilman. There are 17 black state legislators in Missouri out of 199 seats, or about 9 percent -- fewer than the state black population of around 12 percent.

“There are cases where predominantly African-American districts are represented by white elected officials and Ferguson is no exception,” Scissors said. “I really think it has to do with voter registration, it has to do with actual voter turnout and it has to do with real grass-roots mobilizing of the African-American community.”

Read more: Few Black Candidates Enter St. Louis Elections: Have Ferguson's Lessons Gone Unnoticed?