Fox News Flash top headlines for August 19
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.
A member of the Harlem Globetrotters says two Alabama news broadcasters threw fruit, including a banana, at him while he was performing tricks on live television.
IOWA STATE PROFESSOR THREATENS TO DISMISS STUDENTS WHO OPPOSE ABORTION, BLACK LIVES MATTER
Maxwell Pearce shared details of the "unfortunate experience," which he said "diminishes the Naismith Hall of Fame legacy of the Harlem Globetrotters to that of a circus" in a YouTube video Saturday.
During a January segment on "Good Day Alabama" on Fox affiliate WBRC, Pearce was performing tricks to promote an upcoming game for the team when Mickey Ferguson, a weather forecaster on the show, threw a tangerine at him.
Ferguson and anchor Clare Huddleston "started throwing fruits at me in lieu of a basketball. In the span of 36 seconds, two tangerines and ultimately a banana were thrown at me on live television," Pearce recalled.
"Throwing a banana at a black man and passing it off as entertainment displays an unacceptable lack of awareness," he added. "And quite frankly, I'm having a very difficult time understanding how someone could work in the media field and not know that this is offensive."
WBRC News Director Shannon Isbell offered an apology to Pearce during a newscast that aired Friday, featuring an interview with the Globetrotter discussing the incident from five months ago.
“An on-air segment promoting a Globetrotters event with Mr. Pearce in January was intended to be lighthearted," Isbell said in a separate statement. "However, it became something deeply hurtful to our guests as the result of our lack of understanding. We are grateful for the several enlightening, educational conversations we have had with Max over the last two months.”
Pearce initially said he never got an apology from the broadcasters who threw the fruit. Instead, he was offered one by Isbell.
Later in June, amidst the national backdrop of Black Lives Matter protests and movements decrying racial injustice, Pearce revisited the conversation and again was told he'd receive a public apology, which never happened, Andrea Price, Pearce's manager, told the Associated Press.
He was later offered an interview with Huddleston, the newscasters he accuses of throwing the banana at him.
“It would have been an opportunity to educate her on why this act was offensive,” he said. Those plans were also abandoned, according to Price.
Pearce went on to have the interview, which aired Friday, with Isbell.
"Whether the disrespect was intentional or not it doesn't lessen the damage that was caused," Pearce said, recalling the incident in his YouTube video. "This carries deep racial undertones that date back to the early 1900s when black people were held on display in human zoos. And this is a prime example of how the effects of 400 years of oppression have impacted this country. This is symbolic of the daily microaggressions that Black people deal with, and I'm not going to be silent about it anymore."
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
