HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW
Lee
was fired from KTBS-TV, an ABC affiliate in Shreveport, LA after she replied to
a Facebook post that read in part:
“the black lady that does the news is a very
nice lady.the only thing is she needs to wear a wig or grow some more hair. im
not sure if she is a cancer patient. but still its not something myself that i
think looks good on tv. what about letting someone a male have waist long hair
do the news.what about that (cq).”
Lee
answered the same day, saying:
“Hello Emmitt–I am the ‘black lady’ to
which you are referring. I’m sorry you don’t like my ethnic hair. And no I
don’t have cancer. I’m a non-smoking, 5’3, 121 lbs, 25 mile a week running,
37.5 year old woman, and I’m in perfectly healthy physical condition.
“I am very
proud of my African-American ancestry which includes my hair. For your
edification: traditionally our hair doesn’t grow downward. It grows upward.
Many Black women use strong straightening agents in order to achieve a more
European grade of hair and that is their choice. However in my case I don’t
find it necessary. I’m very proud of who I am and the standard of beauty I
display. Women come in all shapes, sizes, nationalities, and levels of beauty.
Showing little girls that being comfortable in the skin and HAIR God gave me is
my contribution to society. Little girls (and boys for that matter) need to see
that what you look like isn’t a reason to not achieve their goals.
“Conforming
to one standard isn’t what being American is about and I hope you can embrace
that.
“Thank you
for your comment and have a great weekend and thank for watching.”
Lee was first reprimanded and then fired. She has since
appeared on numerous radio shows, and may appear soon on the
nationally syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show." And last
week CNN drove her to its Dallas studios to appear on an episode of "Starting Point with
Soledad O'Brien" that aired this morning.
[O’Brien, incidentally, hosted the special, "Who Is
Black in America?" this past Sunday evening. The show will repeat this
Saturday on CNN at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. EST and Sunday at 2 a.m. EST.]
Lee claims her firing was the result of racism. She says the station could cite no official policy she had violated.
But the station’s
news director, Randy Bain, told Journalisms’
Richard Prince that Lee was fired for repeated violations of the station’s
social media policy, and that she had been warned to mend her ways.
Yesterday Bain issued the following statement:
"Typically
this station does not comment on personnel matters, but due to the publicity
and interest about this issue, the station has included the following
statement.
"On
November 28, 2012, KTBS dismissed two employees for repeated violation of the
station’s written procedure. We can confirm that Rhonda Lee was one of the
employees. Another employee was a white male reporter who was an eight year
veteran of the station. The policy they violated provided a specific procedure
for responding to viewer comments on the official KTBS Facebook page. Included
is an email that was sent to all news department employees informing them of
this procedure. This procedure is based on advice from national experts and
commonly used by national broadcast and cable networks and local television
stations across the country.
"Unfortunately,
television personalities have long been subject to harsh criticism and negative
viewer comments about their appearance and performance. If harsh viewer
comments are posted on the station’s official website, there is a specific
procedure to follow.
"Ms.
Rhonda Lee was let go for repeatedly violating that procedure and after being
warned multiple times of the consequences if her behavior continued. Rhonda Lee
was not dismissed for her appearance or defending her appearance. She was fired
for continuing to violate company procedure."
More details on this story can be found on Journalisms here. We
offer a hat tip to Cleveland’s “Web Lady”, Anita Carter, for being the first to
bring this story to our attention.
*Updated at 3:55PM.
2 comments:
The thing about this is that in no way was she rude to the person who made the initial comment about her hair. It would be one thing if she had gone off on some wild tangent like Donald Trump did when President Obama won re-election, but she did not. If she had violated the policy on numerous occasions, this shouldn't have been the one to tip the scale of injustice for her. I hope she sues! Where is Gloria Allred?!
I don't get it. Some fights are not worth acknowledging. The station hired her, which meant she was fine by their standards. She did not have to reply. If she did violate policy, she created the adverse action.
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