[ad_1]
Two New Jersey radio hosts were suspended for 10 days after making derogatory comments about state attorney general Gurbir S. Grewal, including the "turban man" caller.
On Wednesday, radio hosts Dennis Malloy and Judi Franco, of New Jersey 101.5 / WKXW-FM, discussed Mr. Grewal's recent announcement that he was asking prosecutors to delay cases involving related offenses. to marijuana for one month
. Molloy said that he was never going to learn Mr. Grewal 's name, and instead chose to call it "turban man," according to the show' s audio.
"Listen, if it offends you, then do not wear the turban and I will remember your name," Malloy said, then asked Ms. Franco if "turban man" was very offensive. [19659005"Forme?"SherepliedForpeoplewhowearturbans?Perhaps"
Grewal, 45, a Democrat who took office in January, is the first Sikh to become Attorney General of the State.
Comments from the hosts of the radio were quick. Wednesday night , the governor, Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, described the comments as hate speech, the hateful and xenophobic "caller" . "
" We must immediately call behaviors and words totally inappropriate, "he said in an interview on Thursday." We must be unequivocal. "
Grewal sent a tweet to the radio station from his personal account on Thursday morning:" My name , for the record, is Gurbir Grewal, I am the 61st Attorney General of New Jersey, I am a Sikh American, I have 3 daughters, and yesterday I told them to turn off the radio. "[19659010] The radio station announced Thursday afternoon in a statement that Mr. Malloy and Ms. Franco had been susp endus and said that both of them apologized to Mr. Grewal. "We use humor and sarcasm to argue a point and add color to the show, in which case we were out of the mark," the statement said. "C & # 39; was a mistake we deeply regret. "
Host comments have reduced Mr. Grewal to his own faith, said Gurwin Singh Ahuja, co-founder of the Sikh National Campaign, but the real wrong is not come from the dubbing of Mr. Grewal "turban man", he says, but rather from the obvious disinterest of the hosts for what the turban represents for the Sikhs.
"It's a commitment to fight for our "Gender equality and race values, as well as religious tolerance," he said. "When Mr. Malloy said that he would remember Mr. Grewal's name," he said. he did not wear a turban, it reminded the limit that some Sikh Americans feel when they express their cultural and religious identity said Mr. Ahuja.
What made Mayor Ravi Bhalla of Hoboken, NJ, the first Sikh mayor of the state, and his wife gasped
"It was the dagger in the back, "said Mr. Bhalla. "He was openly discriminatory."
"If he was an Attorney General who was not a Sikh, he would have no problem saying his name," he added.
While Mr. Bhalla said that he had heard In this case, it is somewhat discernible because in this case you have a media with some authority. He called the 10-day suspension a "slap on the wrist" and stated that the hosts should be
On Twitter, Mr. Grewal resurfaced a video taken at one time. speech he delivered at a conference in May.
In his speech, he stated that marginalized communities
"But part of what makes our country so great is that we rise above these attacks and rise above these insults, "he said in the video. "And we come together to build something, something bigger and stronger than before."
[ad_2]
Source link
