CNN anchor casually drops racist remark to Spelling Bee winner

eizarus

Banned
Someone mentioned this on my Facebook feed and I couldn't find anything here:

Ananya Vinay, an American of Indian heritage, just won the US national spelling bee. CNN had her spell covfefe, which seemed to be Ananya's first time coming across the word and she misspelled it, at which point, one of the anchors remarked:
Again, it's a nonsense word. We're not sure it's root is Sanskrit, which is probably what you're used to using

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQpQWHLTdJQ&t=1m20s

Covfefe my roots if old
Am I overreacting 🤔
 
It almost sounds like she was trying to be clever but it came out straight up racist instead. I don't think she meant any offense but damn...
 
I'm guessing the reporter was trying to make a reference to how a lot of the spelling bee words have Sanskrit etymology, but damn that's not a good look
 
So let me get this straight:
A person who wins spelling competitions--a person with a command of the English language that exceeds most people

...is probably more used to sanskrit?

I want to see the impressive mental gymnastics one would have to perform to say this was anything other than a profoundly stupid racial statement. I struggle to understand how the minds of people who say stuff like this work. It's a lot like when I'm hanging with my Asian friends, and someone asks them where they are from. This is a woman speaking flawless, unaccented English, yet there's an assumption they aren't a citizen. Just amazing.
 
So let me get this straight:
A person who wins spelling competitions--a person with a command of the English language that exceeds most people

...is probably more used to sanskrit?

I want to see the impressive mental gymnastics one would have to perform to say this was anything other than a profoundly stupid racial statement.
.. Do you know anything about spelling bees? You need to know the latin, greek, sanskrit , french and english roots and rules of words. For example recently a 5 yr old girl won the American Spelling Bee competition with the word "Jnana" which is.. sanskrit.
 
You can tell she knew she fucked up halfway through the sentence.

I feel like she was going to sarcastically say that the word is probably sanskrit or something, realized that would probably come off as offensive, and then tried (and failed) to salvage it.

.. Do you know anything about spelling bees? You need to know the latin, greek, sanskrit , french and english roots and rules of words. For example recently a 5 yr old girl won the American Spelling Bee competition with the word "Jnana" which is.. sanskrit.

Or maybe it was this? That would make sense.
 
"I guess you chose it up because its root is scribbles on a goddamn cave you fucking troglodyte"
 
What's the name of this CNN anchor? She should be suspended for such a statement.
Alisyn Camerota I think.
.. Do you know anything about spelling bees? You need to know the latin, greek, sanskrit , french and english roots and rules of words. For example recently a 5 yr old girl won the American Spelling Bee competition with the word "Jnana" which is.. sanskrit.
Yet they made it clear to her (if you watch the full video) that it's a gibberish word with no root (she specifically asked about the root) and that it was randomly tweeted by Trump. That justification won't apply.
 
.. Do you know anything about spelling bees? You need to know the latin, greek, sanskrit , french and english roots and rules of words. For example recently a 5 yr old girl won the American Spelling Bee competition with the word "Jnana" which is.. sanskrit.
eh, still not fully buying it. She went to sanskrit immediately instead of assuming Latin or Greek, which are more common. To assume that the brown kid is more use to using sanskrit is neither a clever nor funny joke/comment. No matter how you spin it, it just comes off looking ridiculous.
 
So why didn't she say "we're not sure it's root is latin, which is probably what you're used to using" instead? Come on, man.

Eh ok watched the full video...this is a good point I guess.

For context: the word they ask her to spell is some made up bs word, and they're asking it as part of a fluff interview, not as part of a real spelling bee. It's not like the girl misspelled the word because she guessed (wrongly) that the word originated from Sanskrit, which is what I assumed.
 
It's revolving door around here what news outlet makes you idiot today.


I'm not gaf. I'm an individual who has personally been in a lot of rooms where CNN is playing over decades, and my personal opinion is that personally I think it is stupid. Have you ever heard Wolf Blitzer talk for longer than 30 seconds? I have and I could feel myself turning to stone. I'll never forget the time they spent election night talking to a fake hologram of Wi.ll.iam.
 
she was a former fox & friend's anchor as well. not surprised
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So is the aim of this thread to make this viral so that the anchor would either be forced to feel shame or to lose her job?

It's not as if this joke was supposed to be derogatory or anything like that.
 
Im notboffended but the anchor is clearly an imbecile. She obviousky is ignorant to the fact tyat Sanskrit is the origin of Hjndi and Punjabi like Latin is the origin of English. Either way she is a professional, and that statement was unprofessional of her. Anyone asking for her job has needs to step back and assess how utterly rediculous that is. She shoud just apologize and everyone needs to forgive and move on. Grow a backbone if this offends you. I dont need empathy over this stupud statement.

I've grown up arond racist shitheads, this is absolutely nothing. If she loses her job becauseshe was unprifessional fine, but this is nowhere near racism wit the shit I grew op with.
 
The person is an idiot, probably was trying to say something clever but realised she screwed up halfway. I dont think she should be suspended for this but wouldnt care if she did.
 
Isn't Sanskrit still used in households of Indian heritage then? It's not unusual for young British born Indians here to be multilingual. Some schools certainly teach it is part of the curriculum.
 
Sort of offensive. Like 5 on a scale of 1-10.

Isn't Sanskrit still used in households of Indian heritage then? It's not unusual for young British born Indians here to be multilingual. Some schools certainly teach it is part of the curriculum.

Nope. Think of it like Latin. It might be taught in some schools but its use is now limited to religious ceremonies.
 
I feel like they went for a joke, given the word was a joke to begin with, but accidentally made a joke that could be racist. Based on what an earlier poster said, they do actually use sanskrit words, which, well, covfefe could sound like, and it was probably intended as a joke off that.
 
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