Fox News Host Brian Kilmeade is being alternately condemned and defended for criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris’s choice to live up to a previous commitment to address the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. National Convention rather than attend a joint session of Congress to hear Israel’s Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
“She will not show up for the Prime Minister’s joint session of Congress today." said Kilmeade. "She’d rather address, in the summer, a sorority, a colored sorority, like she can’t get out of that?”
I’ve listened to this clip multiple times, and all I hear is “colored.”
When Kilmeade’s use of the word “colored” hit social media, it didn’t take long for Fox News to state that he used the word “college,” and anyone saying otherwise was a liar. Kilmeade said he’d “never used the word in his life” and because he’d read books about Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass, nobody could think he’d ever use such an outdated term from the 30s. During his statement, Kilmeade used the word college multiple times, one admittedly overemphasized, but neither of the other instances sounded like what he said in his initial statement about Harris.
Kilmeade asks us to believe his version because he’s so enlightened. It’s only reasonable to check his record to see his beliefs. In another clip, he advocates against the mixing of races, crediting the Swedes and Finns for being pure. If he can argue that point, saying the word colored isn't out of the realm of possibilities.
Kilmeade apologized for those racist comments. Apologizing for the words doesn’t change his beliefs that different ethnicities are a whole different species. Ask yourself, is that a man that could call a group of Black women “colored?”
In full disclosure, I am a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., the official brothers of Zeta Phi Beta, and, along with them, members of the Divine Nine. It was implied elsewhere that Kilmeade's words insulted members of the Divine Nine. Shouldn’t everyone be insulted? The National Convention of Zeta Phi Beta was not some summer get-together of college girls but thousands of grown women (voters) representing over 100,000 more. Kamala Harris did the right thing by not altering her schedule to attend a hastily convened political stunt by Republicans. Thank you, Kamala, for maintaining your priorities.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Medium. And if you dig his words, buy the man a coffee.