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• (04/03/08)Racist Comments on G105
• (04/06/08)Pembroke Buzzes about Bills Visit
• (04/06/08)Bill Clinton campaign visit
• (02/19/08)Tribe host 2008 Golf Tournament
• (02/01/08)Tribe denounces Lumbee cigarettes

Lumbees upset over radio program comments

Lumbees and other American Indians in North Carolina are outraged over what they consider racist comments made Tuesday on Raleigh radio station WDCG.

Clear Channel Communications owns the station, which is more widely known as “G105.”

The controversial comments came during “The Showgram,” a popular morning program hosted by longtime Raleigh radio air personality Bob Dumas.

Among other comments, members of the “Showgram” team called Indians indolent. Dumas said to his listeners, “This is the God’s honest truth. You can look at the statistics — Indians are lazy.”

Greg Richardson, executive director of the N.C. Commission of Indian Affairs said his office had been bombarded by e-mails and telephone calls complaining about the issue.

“It’s unlike anything I’ve seen really in terms of a disagreement with the way G105 handled this,” he said.

The radio station and Clear Channel Communications did not immediately return phone calls.

The Lumbees, in particular, was singled out in the 15-minute exchange that opened Tuesday’s show.

“They were questioning our Indian heritage,” Richardson said.

Morgan Brittany Hunt works with the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She talks to teens on the consequences of smoking cigarettes.

“It hurts my feelings,” she said. “I’m 25 and trying to do something positive. We have doctors, we have lawyers, we have businessmen. We may have people who don’t have their four-year degree, but who get up and work hard to provide for their family. I was really upset.”

The exchange began when a white college intern on the show said she was marrying a Lumbee. “Hey, white girl. After you get married, are you going to have a teepee-warming party,” someone quipped. “I could give you a pelt or something.”

Richardson called the show’s comments inflammatory.

“I think simply, it’s very sad,” he said, “that you would have a radio (station) like that putting that kind of information out on the air. I wonder if they understand how inflammatory those remarks can be.”

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