Criticizing Rocky article, KCOL's James said, “Write what you mean ... the community college system has lost its colored presidents”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
While discussing a Rocky Mountain News article noting the “lack of diversity” in top posts in Colorado's community college system on his September 27 broadcast, Fox News Radio 600 KCOL host and program director Scott James accused the News of not “be[ing] honest with the premise of this entire article.” After reading from the News article, which reported that “the community college system has lost its diverse presidents,” James said, "[I]t has not," before adding, "[L]et me read this the way it's correct: 'While the community college system has lost its colored presidents.' Isn't that what you mean?"
Earlier in the broadcast, James stated, “You can't be diverse if you're white. Chaps my butt.” He then said he “will celebrate diversity if it's about diversity of opinions, if it's about diversity of attitudes, if it's about diversity of experiences,” and added, “But in this crowd's mind, all diversity is, is a color of skin.”
The September 27 News article, about the firing of former Community College of Denver President Christine Johnson, reported that “there are no Hispanic presidents, or any presidents of color, left at the state's 13 community colleges. And, in a state that recently boasted several Hispanic college presidents and a prominent black, Al Yates, at the helm of one of its largest universities, Colorado State, there is barely any diversity at the top anymore.”
From the September 27 broadcast of Fox News Radio 600 KCOL's Ride Home with The James Gang:
JAMES: So am I not diverse? Oh, I'm sorry; I'm white. You can't be diverse if you're white. Chaps my butt. Because if, I will celebrate diversity if it's about diversity of opinions, if it's about diversity of attitudes, if it's about diversity of experiences. But in this crowd's mind, all diversity is, is a color of skin. At least be honest. We'd like your institution much more if you had somebody who had colored skin at the head of it. I mean, be honest with the premise of this entire article. Has nothing to do with diversity and everything to do with what Dr. Martin Luther King wanted us to forget. Tell me how this is just not the most hypocritical thing in the newspaper today. And it goes on and on and on. “The only Hispanic official leading any Colorado university of college, or college is Joseph Garcia, president of CSU [Colorado State University] at Pueblo and former president of Pikes Peak Community College. Only black at the top of an institution of higher learning is M. Roy Wilson, a Harvard-educated M.D. who is chancellor of the University of Colorado at Denver and the Health Sciences Center.” Good, that means they're qualified.
“While the community college system has lost its diverse presidents” -- it has not. Write what you mean. While -- the, while, let me read this the way it's correct: “While the community college system has lost its colored presidents.” Isn't that what you mean? “Christine Johnson faces career implosion. Once a charismatic, innovative leader of the Community College of Denver and a respected leader in the Hispanic community, Johnson is now the target of ongoing audit by the community college system after her bosses publicized emails they say showed that Johnson authorized underreporting of CCD's financial reserves.”