Radio personality Ebro is under fire after an old video of him making a bigoted statement about singer Tinashe’s last name resurfaced on the internet. His remarks were racialized in two different ways. First, he said that she was too light to have such a ghetto name, and then he implied that her multisyllabic African name was ghetto.
The clip was from a 2013 interview that Ibrahim “Ebro” Darden and Peter Rosenberg from the Hot 97 radio program “Morning Show” conducted with the singer.
During her introduction, Ebro asks for her to say her last name, which is Kachingwe. When she answers his request, he blurts out, “Can we point out how light-skinned she is with the ghetto a-s name, though?”
Rosenberg, a Jewish man, in disbelief says, “It’s not a ghetto a-s name. She has an African name.”
Ebro then says, “Yeah, but sometimes these ghetto names are actually African.”
Rosenberg then says that he believes what’s most interesting is how light-skinned she is and that her name is “completely African.” After which, Tinashe reveals that she is bi-racial and that her father is from Zimbabwe and her mother is a Scandinavian white woman that grew up in Iowa.
The resurfacing of this interview had Ebro trending during the holiday and proved that nothing ever dies on the internet. Ebro, who in 2019 was appointed Apple Music’s Global Editorial Head of Hip-Hop and R&B, took to his social media to address what he called a tasteless joke. He wrote, “Yea this was a terrible joke, we were using the name skit for people to learn her origins… love Tinashe thats my homey still.”
That did not seem to be enough for others offended by the joke.
Many went to Twitter to point out how disrespectful the joke was, but to assert that the influencer has had a long history of being “colorist.”
“So #Ebro associates dark skin with being ‘ghetto’?? He acts like having light skin makes it impossible for you to be deemed ‘ghetto’ His COLORISM jumped out Is he even black or is he a cultural appropriator? Since when are African names ‘ghetto’? #” writes Team Kandi Always.
Another Twitter user said, “Ebro has a Long History of being Colorist & Disrespectful to black women. He claims it was a joke? Just stop! #ebro”
Others on the social media platform marveled at how Peter Rosenberg appeared to be more sensitive to the nuances of name origin than his co-host.
“If Rosenberg is more Black Knowledgeable than You and You’re Black, it’s a Issue #Ebro #Rosenberg#Tinashe #HOT97 #HipHop #BreakingNews” tweeted someone else.
So, what does one do when they are being dragged? They accept their licks. In an effort to make the best out of a bad situation, Ebro began reposting comments about the “terrible joke” and agreed with the public that he should not have made the comments.
The most transparent of his posts came when he tweeted out, “Complete L, but I play dumb in many interviews so I can be the ‘heel’, Im taking the flames now. People should be mad at me, especially those that don’t know me. I have apologized. Feel free to keep cooking me, makes sense.”
While the former radio programmer is being dragged, Tinashe has kept quiet. Her last post, right before this all hit the fan was “so THANKFUL for it ALL.”
More Stories from Our Partners:
Tech Leads Stock Gains as Reopening Trade Fades: Markets Wrap
