AMERICAN INDIAN POINT OF VIEW ON RACISM: 40 YEARS AFTER MLK, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH




The North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs chairman, Paul Brooks, issued the following statement today regarding the racially charged comments made on the April 1st airing of Raleigh’s G105 radio station “Bob and the Showgram.” The show is a production of Clear Channel Communications Corporation.

We are outraged with a public presentation of racially degrading and inflammatory comments similar to those by the “Don Imus Show” that infuriated the American public. On the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination the world remembers and reviews advances made in American society by diverse ethnic groups to overcome racial disparities. Incidents such as these by media personalities on G105 evidence that the institution of racism is ever present, and demands redress and response by corporate America and government.

As leaders of North Carolina’s American Indian tribes, we will not tolerate the divisive and inflammatory statements made by radio talk show hosts Bob Dumas, Mike Morse, Kentucky Kristin, and intern Chelsea Prior, on Tuesday April 1, 2008. “Bob and the Showgram” have a history of controversial broadcast and have had subsequent disciplinary action, apparently to no avail. The North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs will not tolerate this type of degradation towards American Indians, and demands the immediate termination of the radio talk show host, co-hosts, and the executive producer of this show. The Commission also calls for the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Clear Channel Communications Corporation and examine Clear Channel’s history, tolerance, and promotion of this type of inflammatory and reprehensible programming.

The statements made by these media personalities are not part of an isolated incident, however, this show reflects derogatory and insultuous comments against American Indians, African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics. G105’s “Bob and the Showgram’s” remarks triggered an uproar by American Indians in North Carolina, due to its direct targeting of the Lumbee Indian Tribe, the largest American Indian tribe east of the Mississippi River.

Statements such as, “Indians are lazy…,” “Lumbees are in-bred…,” and references to Pocahontas as “Poca-Ho-tas” and Sacajawea as “Sacacooter” are slanderous and insulting to all American Indians, as well as the descendants and families of these two great historic American Indian women. The dialogue referring to a “teepee warming party” demonstrates that these individuals have no knowledge of North Carolina American Indian tribes and cultures. Such statements are further indicative of these individuals’ insensitivity, gross ignorance, and blatant bigotry against American Indians across this great nation.

The North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs calls for all local, state, national, and tribal officials to condemn such programming on the public airwaves.


This press release was issued by Paul Brooks, Chairman for the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs. Please distribute widely.

Rebekah Revels
Administrative Secretary
NC Commission of Indian Affairs
100 Six Forks Road
Suite 201
Raleigh NC 27609
919-789-5900