BREAKING NEWS! Elder Kyle McKay, Church Historian for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, apologized in writing for racially insensitive comments he made at a stake conference in Oklahoma last Sunday!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
These “joking” racial remarks came from an educated man in his mid-sixties, likely in front of a thousand people. You don’t just wake up one day and have racist comments slip out of your mouth — that kind of language is practiced. It’s been honed over years of getting laughs at the expense of marginalized communities, and it makes you wonder what he’s said in smaller, less public settings.
The apology is noted, and it’s certainly a step forward. But it’s hard to separate it from an institution with a long history of harmful and damaging teachings. One apology doesn’t erase that embedded pattern — it just adds to the very long list of things that have required countless apologies yet to come.