Opinion

Column: Small-minded DJs insult Lumbee Tribe

Friday, April 11, 2008

"How could this be OK?

That was the fundamental question when a Lumbee friend called last week, outraged, after her high school-age daughter heard a trio of shock jocks trashing the tribe on Raleigh’s WDCG (105 FM).

The segment, led by DJ Bob Dumas, began as banter with a departing station intern who said she was leaving to get married. After the unnamed intern mentioned that she was marrying a Lumbee, stock sound effects such as fake "woo-woo-woo" Indian chants played in the background.

Dumas and his co-hosts quizzed the intern at length about her fiance, asking whether he was "full-blooded" and whether the couple planned to have a "teepee warming" after the wedding and suggesting she tell her parents, "At least he’s not black."

After making fun of the intern, who laughed along, Dumas and his co-hosts ridiculed Indians in general as "lazy" and Lumbees specifically as "inbred."

It was only after Greg Richardson, executive director of the N.C. Commission of Indian Affairs, on Wednesday demanded the hosts be fired that the station announced the suspension — eight days after the show aired."

Get the Story:
Lorraine Ahearn: Lumbee slur: Big-mouth DJs with small minds (The Greensboro News Record 4/11)