Fox’s sole black male anchor broke down as he described in a press conference the racial bias that permeates Fox News on and off the air.
The press conference was held today by the law firm representing 13 plaintiffs suing Fox News for racism. “I am here reluctantly,” Wright said, “because I prefer sitting behind an anchor desk.”
Perhaps anticipating Fox News’ reaction, he said he is not part of any left-wing group or financier. “I am not against any man or woman at Fox News,” he said. “The truth is I admire, I like and even love the people who I work with and for but I don’t like what they do.”
WRIGHT: Somewhere along the way, they [Fox News] lost their way and they’ve failed to include equality for all. The greatness failed to be fair and balanced to all of our employees regardless of race, gender, faith, creed or color. Our leaders simply seemed to overlook the value of diversity or inclusion in the workplace.
Wright called it “indefensible and inexcusable” that he is the only black male anchor at Fox. “It speaks volumes of the disregard to equality at Fox News,” he said.
It was after learning about the “blatant acts of discrimination,” his colleagues in another department endured that Wright decided, “Something has to be done.”
WRIGHT: I can no longer sit in silence, collect my paycheck and act like I didn’t experience racial bias on my own level as an on-air personality… albeit in a more subtle but in a demeaning way and marginalizing my growth and my development that would not only benefit me but benefit others.
According to Wright, he had repeatedly approached Fox about improving its culture. He said he had asked the network to “grow as a company and open the door wide to more opportunities to hire and develop men and women of color.”
“I’m not here to be a token,” Wright told reporters and the public. “I want to make it possible for whoever fills my shoes, that next generation, to never go through this.” His voice broke.
But what viewers and readers should also take away is that the racial bias described by Wright was not just about what employees suffer. Wright made it clear Fox deliberately turned its back on positive stories about minorities. Wright said he held “direct talks with leaders over the past 10 years” to “never overlook the negative” but also show positive things about communities of color “to show the positive and inspiring people within those communities who proactively strive to right the wrongs and pave the way out of downtrodden, impoverished conditions through education, through faith, through fortitude and forgiveness.”
As I reported in a previous post, Fox allegedly refused Wright’s efforts, saying they would show blacks in “too positive” a light.
Wright said the plaintiffs’ law firm has reportedly received calls from “other on-air talent throughout the country.” A similar claim was echoed by Michael Calderone.
So Fox’s legal and public image problems are nowhere near over.
“Hopefully, we will find the courage to make change,” Wright said, his voice breaking again.
Watch Wright’s emotional statements below, from an April 26, 2017 press conference below (video found via Raw Story):
Fox “News” is a racist and sexist news organization filled with bigots, and every advertiser on this demonic network is being notified.
We ask all the masses to send this video to all of the Foxies’ advertisers on Twitter and Facebook. Copy and paste this message: Do you support racism, bigotry and sexism? You do if your advertise on this network.
NOTE TO FOX “NEWS” PAST AND CURRENT EMPLOYEES
Stand up and speak out about the racist and sexist behavior of the Fox suits and mouthpieces. Call…call…call! Let’s remove these Ailes leftovers. There’s a certain Fox “News” host who will not join the fight. He’s more concerned about his own career. He’s greedy and self-serving. You know who we are talking about.
NOTE TO MURDOCHS
Get rid of Shine and the rest of the bigots at Fox, or more advertisers will be ask to stay away from this network.
Most of their watchers even today can’t see that.
I’m sure that he’s enjoyed sitting behind the anchor desk of the most biased, racist and homophobic network of all time for the past 14 years. Until now, he’s found a way to justify his hypocrisy. For 30 pieces of silver, he’s betrayed his race and probably his ancestors by associating with Fox. And he feels the need to say that he’s now protesting ‘reluctantly’?
Fuck him. That statement should be in the running for this week’s most outrageous.