It’s not just the ‘racism’ that is offensive about CNN host’s remark to spelling bee champ

It’s not just the ‘racism’ that is offensive about CNN host’s remark to spelling bee champ
Alisyn Camerota (Image: YouTube screen grab)

CNN host Alisyn Camerota is taking well-deserved heat for reinforcing a stereotype in a doubly dimwitted remark she made to 12-year-old Ananya Vinay. Vinay, winner of the 2017 Scripps Spelling Bee, was a guest yesterday on the network’s “New Day,” co-hosted by Camerota and Chris Cuomo.

Never missing an opportunity to take a shot at Donald Trump, the pair asked the child to spell the liberal word of the day, covfefe. When she failed to spell it as it was written in a now-infamous tweet by the president, Camerota observed that “it’s a nonsense word so were not sure that its root is actually in Sanskrit, which is what you’re probably used to using.”

Here’s the video:

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It’s hard to say which is Camerota’s greater offense: Her racism or her stupidity. The presumption that the child, who is of Indian extraction, speaks a language other than English at home is playing to stereotypes. Vinay was born in Fresno, where she still lives.

Moreover, except in Hindu religious ceremonies, Sanskrit is for all intents and purposes a dead language. Assuming that someone speaks Sanskrit in the home is akin to assuming a person speaks Latin in the home.

As for the Left’s endless fascination with covfefe and languages, has it occurred to them that maybe it’s a word in another tongue — perhaps Austrian?

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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