I was suppose to be an anchor

…but they gave it to a minority.

(More from the mcarp archives… the prophetic genius and brilliance are his;
the ones/zeros, pixels, pictures and subheads and pull-quotes are mine.)

…and good-looking white kids are having to do without.

There are no white people left anchoring TV news anymore.

To be honest, I haven’t checked every TV station in America to confirm it, but I’m sure it’s true. Because every time I turn around, I hear some white person griping that they were ‘cheated’ out of some glamorous, overpaid, underworked anchor job because the station ‘had to get a minority.’

This has happened so often that I have to assume that every on-air job in the industry has now been handed to non-white talent.

The complaint, posted to some Internet chat board, usually looks something like this:

my agent says I was suppose to get a anchor job in a top ten... but they had to give it to a minority... I'm really tired of this... I've been here eieghteen months, and I hate reporting... I should be anchoring right now... it's not fair... they shouldnt hire anchors because of race...

No, they should hire anchors for some higher quality.

Like looks, for example.

Personally, I’m of the opinion that no one is ‘suppose’ to be an anchor. That’s like saying you’re ‘suppose’ to win the lottery. Or that you’re ‘suppose’ to find a bag with a million dollars in it lying on the street.

And strangely enough, you never hear someone complain a minority ‘stole’ a photographer’s job, or a producer’s job. It’s always the cush anchor jobs that are being unfairly handed out to blacks, Hispanics, and Asians when there are so many stunning, beautiful white people doing without.

Being a news anchor is a lot like being one of The Backstreet Boys, anyway. You look great, get a lot of money for displaying a modicum of talent, and everyone else looks at you and wonders why it’s happening.

The rest of us, black and white alike, just have to go on working for a living.

(originally published by Michael Carpenter, republished with permission.)