CBS Apologizes for Indian-Motif OutKast Number
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – CBS television on Friday apologized for any offense taken at the American Indian-motif Grammy Awards performance by the hip-hop group OutKast that some Native Americans have condemned as racist.
The San Francisco-based Native American Cultural Center (NACC) posted a notice on its Web site this week calling for a boycott of CBS, OutKast’s label, Arista Records, and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which sponsors the Grammys.
“It was the most disgusting set of racial stereotypes aimed at American Indians that I have ever seen on TV,” NACC board member Sean Freitas said in the online statement. “It was on par with white people dancing sexually in black face, or yarmulkes … I am shocked and outraged.”
NACC Chair Andrew Brother Elk said he has lodged a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission over the telecast, which he branded as “racist TV programing.
Less than two weeks ago, CBS came under fire from the FCC for the breast-baring Super Bowl halftime performance by Janet Jackson on the Viacom Inc.-owned network.
“We are very sorry if anyone was offended,” CBS spokeswoman Nancy Carr
You know, as soon as I saw that performance I said to myself, “oooh, they’re going to get in trouble with the indians”
I’ve known that I was psychic all along.