No, TODAY Show. Nooooooooo. Very, very bad.
On day four of its annual ‘We Love Australia Tour’ – a great tradition that’s all about showing off this beautiful country of ours – someone made the terrible, not-at-all-smart decision to dress weatherman Stevie Jacobs in a Native American headdress as he showed off livestock in NSW’s Hunter Valley Gardens.
According to one viewer, he also “referred to them as Indians and then did a racist Indian accent, joking ‘that’s the wrong Indian’.”
THIS. IS. NOT. OK. @TheTodayShow pic.twitter.com/OdxYvnjqBn
— J. (@noitacude) June 1, 2016
“We love Australia” he says in an Indian Headdress, I’m so done #weloveracism @TheTodayShow #9Today pic.twitter.com/OU92XxB4FH
— Jimmy Sharpe (@jimmysharpe_) June 1, 2016
Viewer Jimmy Sharpe told PEDESTRIAN.TV he was shocked that, in 2016, no one on the TODAY Show team picked up on the fact cultural appropriation of any kind is a big no-no before the segment went live to-air.
“I was more surprised than anything,” he says. “To begin with I just shook my head and put it down to ignorance but then he started doing an accent from a completely different Indian culture.”
We’ve contacted the TODAY Show for comment.
Photo: Supplied.
