You have to see it to believe it. An Oklahoma TV news anchor has given a tearful apology after making a racist comment to her co-anchor live on air.

It happened last week on KOCO an ABC affiliate in Oklahoma City. During a story on the Oklahoma City Zoo about a gorilla, anchor Alex Housden, who is white ended the segment by telling her black co-anchor, Jason Hackett that he looked like the animal.

Hackett says that he would like to make this a teaching moment for her and everyone else. The station President, Brent Hensley was not willing to talk but he released a statement saying the station had nothing more to say about the “unfortunate incident”.

Viewers flooded the station with calls of outrage about the racist commend and several comments about Housden were posted on Facebook.

A day after the racist comment the two took part in an on-air dialogue about racism and cultural education. Housden began with by saying “I’m here this morning because I want to apologize, not only to my co-anchor Jason but to our entire community,” “I said something yesterday that was inconsiderate, that was inappropriate, and I hurt people. And I want you to understand how much I hurt you out there,” “and how much I hurt you.” She teared up as she apologized to her co-anchor who sat on a couch next to her.

Hackett thanked her and he told viewers that she was one of his best friends and that he appreciated her. He added what she said cut deep for him and a lot of people in the community. He said he wants this to be a teachable moment and that “The lesson here is that words matter.”

Regarding the question of whether any actions that the station may choose to take against Housden, The President and General Manager of KOCO said the public apology by Housden and the acceptance by Hackett is sufficient for them.

Click here to see the on-air apology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klF3XVD-JzI#action=share

Follow me on Twitter @taylorthomas963