Rapper Tip “T.I.” Harris sparked fury on social media after he appeared to defend a white Oklahoma anchorwoman who compared her Black co-host to a gorilla in the city zoo.
Oklahoma City’s KOCO-TV morning anchor Alex Housden tearfully apologized to her co-anchor Jason Hackett after comparing him to a gorilla during a live news broadcast on Thursday, Aug. 22.
The incident occurred near the end of a segment about a gorilla at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Housden, who is white, turned to Hackett and said the animal, “Kind of looks like you.”
Amazingly, Hackett agreed with his co-anchor, saying, “He kind of does, actually, yeah.”
The next day, Housden tearfully apologized to Hackett and to viewers after a video clip of the segment went viral and sparked outrage on Facebook.
In a since deleted post on Instagram.com, rapper T.I. appeared to defend Housden by claiming Hackett does look like a gorilla.
In the post, which was screenshot by blogger ATLien of Straightfromthea.com, T.I. said he accepted her apology and he believed she was sincere “both times” because Hackett “kinda favored that [gorilla].”
ATLien noted that Tip’s commentary is “especially shocking considering his stance on Gucci’s red lipped monkey shirt.” T.I. called for a 3-month boycott of Gucci that never got off the ground.
This isn’t the first time T.I. has shown a bias toward light skin being superior to dark skin. He often joked about preferring light skinned women to dark skinned women in the past. They say there’s a kernel of truth in every joke.
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