WEEI’s Chris Curtis suspended after comment
WEEI producer Chris Curtis has been suspended following his comment about ESPN’s Mina Kimes, apologizing on Thursday for his “stupid lame attempt at a joke.”
Curtis has been facing heat since he called Kimes a “nip” during a recent segment on The Greg Hill Show. The sports talk radio show hosts were discussing their favorite alcohol nips, as the Boston City Council explores whether the city should ban the small liquor bottles.
The word “nip” is an ethnic slur against Japanese people, and Kimes is AsianAmerican.
Curtis at the start of Thursday’s show said he meant to say the actress Mila Kunis instead of Kimes.
“In a pathetic failed attempt at a one-liner, I attempted to bring up Mila Kunis, which was not really that funny, sophomoric and sexist,” Curtis said. “But for reasons I don’t understand, I said Mina Kimes.
“That was never the intention for me to say her name,” he added. “It had nothing to do with the subject matter, and it dragged her into a controversy through no fault of her own regarding a slur and her race, and it’s not at all what my intention was — but it doesn’t matter because of the absolute chaos that my words created for someone who’s just doing her job covering the NFL at ESPN.”
On Wednesday, Kimes changed her Twitter profile picture to Kunis after hearing that Curtis meant to say the actress.
“I want to apologize to Mina Kimes,” Curtis said on Thursday. “I want to apologize for the stupid lame attempt at a joke… I had a clumsy attempt to try to bring humor to a story in Boston.”
“This is not who I am and who we are as a show, but I fell short of that,” he later added.
Curtis left the show after the opening segment on Thursday, and he will be back on Wednesday next week following his suspension.
Boston City Council President Ed Flynn in a statement on Thursday said, “The use of ethnic or racial slurs is never acceptable. At a time when there are increasing levels of anti-AAPI hate, it is even more critical that we recognize how words can be used for harm and division.
“The word used yesterday is a slur against a person of Japanese descent, and must not be used again,” Flynn added. “Words matter, and they should never be used to add to the flames of racism, sexism, and discrimination.”
This latest incident at WEEI comes five years after the station held sensitivity training following a host’s offensive impersonation of an Asian accent. Host Christian Fauria had imitated sports agent Don Yee on-air in an exaggerated, mocking Asian accent. Advertisers dropped WEEI as a result.
The top sports talk radio station in the region, 98.5 The Sports Hub, was recently in the spotlight for racist comments. Host Tony Massarotti was suspended for his “insensitive” comment about Black people sitting behind his 98.5 co-host Mike Felger. All of the on-air Beasley employees in the Boston-area took sensitivity training after that.