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Sunrise apologises after petition questions ‘racist’ remark

Updated: UK twins back Sam Armytage saying, "We believe your comment was completely misinterpreted."

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Samantha Armytage has clarified comments made recently during a Sunrise interview that have been branded as casual racism, and says she is “mortified” if anyone misinterpreted her.

Last month whilst interviewing non-identical British twins Lucy and Mary Alymer, who have contrasting features due to mixed-race parentage, Armytage made an ‘aside’ reference which raised eyebrows.

“The Aylmer twins come from a mixed race family in the UK,” she said during the introduction.

“Maria has taken after her half-Jamaican mum with dark skin, brown eyes and curly, dark hair but Lucy got her dad’s fair skin — good on her — along with straight red hair and blue eyes.”

The moment led to a petition calling for an apology, which now has 3000 signatures and also made it into last week’s Media Watch.

“I would be mortified if anyone thought I would say or think anything racist,” Armytage said in a statement today to News Corp.

“It’s not in my nature. To anyone who I might have offended, I’m sorry.”

Executive producer Michael Pell added, “We are making this statement to avoid further misunderstanding about Sam’s comment on Sunrise.

“Sam has always admitted that her own fair complexion was a disadvantage in the Australian environment.

“We apologise if anyone misunderstood or if they were offended.”

Updated: Fairfax reports the twins have backed Armytage saying they did not take offence and no apology was needed:

“We understand that the ‘good on her’ comment WAS NOT to the fact that I have white skin and Maria has brown skin but to the fact that Samantha also has a FAIR skin complexion … people will find anything and anyone to throw the ‘racist’ card at in a situation where no racism exists.

“So, good on you, Samantha, for showing pride in having fair skin. We believe your comment was completely misinterpreted and taken completely the wrong way by a lot of viewers.”

23 Responses

  1. Would’ve sounded worse if she said of the black woman “good on her”. That would’ve been patronising and racist. Sam says some really dumb things sometimes

  2. She said nothing wrong, didn’t even work out why people were so upset until I red the comments and that one line good for her is not racist at all people need to get a life

  3. She seems to be in the media abit now, it was a silly thing to say she does need to remember that she may offend some viewers regardless and you are in the spotlight… I do prefer Today over sunrise but Studio 10 is my fav a far much better & professional team!

  4. Armytage is a master of putting her foot in her mouth.

    When she used to host Sunday Sunrise she mocked a gay guest on the show “do it for you …and your grand kids.”

    I would have assumed she’d have learnt by now.

  5. This is just another ridiculous beat up to bully Sam Armytage – why aren’t the Seven Management doing anything to help the poor girl. It seems every few weeks there is a nasty ‘mean girls’ style attack on Sam, its obvious a woman or a group of jealous female co-workers are out to get her. Classic case of sour grapes. Truth is that Sam got the job because she has the X-factor and she’s good at her job. No amount of sabotage from the side will ever get the ‘mean girls’ the spot on the couch. Management are turning a blind eye because they are weak, time to retire some of the old boilers and clear the air.

  6. The problem was with channel seven. They tried to spin a response instead of giving a proper explanation. All concern erred should be counseled about appropriate language. But that won’t happen, these people can get away with murder and so bleeding heart will say ” oh they didn’t mean it”.

  7. This reminds me of a previous incident about the surgeon who made a selfie when operating Joan Rivers and she said something like ‘Oh it’s a woman!’. I think there was an outcry at that time too. Since then, she has sort of lost her appeal to me.

  8. Was it racist? After all that’s how most of the families in AUS talk about their kids, you look like grandpa Charlie, ya poor bugger, I was told I looked like my Aunty Eileen a second generation Irish woman, I’m a male person. I dont watch Sunrise now, but in my humble opinion Sam was just being Australian and if that is racist I give up. Oh and I didn’t find her comments offensive. The attack on her was outrageous. Chin up Sam

    1. It was the injection of “good on her” after the fair skin comment that created the issue. Even Koch threw her a glance. Remember, she was introducing twins who look completely different. If she had said “good on her” after the first intro and then repeated it, no issue. It was an imbalanced utterance and appeared to suggest fair skin was better. This said, the petition was taking things rather far I thought.

    2. As evident by the comment below, people will find or look for any little comment so they can act offended and look like the more superior person

      She made a comment that has been blown completely out of proportion – quite typical now for Australia. The “lucky” country – nah more like a country full of the easily offended (or bandwagon jumpers)

  9. “Sam has always admitted that her own fair complexion was a disadvantage in the Australian enviroment.” What does that mean…she gets sunburnt easily?

  10. I really am developing a pet dislike of the phrase “if anyone misunderstood” because it places the burden of meaning on the listener rather than the speaker. It has taken all day for Armytage to actually say she is sorry for any offence that arose. I found it quite ridiculous that earlier comments from the producer stated that anyone who was a regular viewer would have known she didn’t mean anything negative which then shifted to “her comment was taken out of context”. Err..the twins are not regular viewers and the context was immediate and right in front of her eyes. She spoke without thinking and should have had the wherewithall to immediately recotnise the gaffe and explain and apologise to her guests.

    1. Exactly. The burden of clearly communicating lies with whomever is speaking/writing/typing.

      Armytage’s comment hasn’t been taken out of context – it’s been quoted entirely within any necessary context, and it’s difficult to see how we should interpret it other than as casual, unthinking racism.

      If Armytage is mortified, it should be because she now realises that she is at least mildly racist, even if unintentionallly. Oh, and that she was mildly racist on television and not in the privacy of her own lounge room.

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