Miss Jones

New York?s Caribbean immigrant contingent wants WQHT/Hot 97?s Miss Jones off the air after her comment about Roger Toussaint, the Trinidad-born president of New York?s Transit Workers? Union Local 100.

In the heat of the city?s recent transit strike, Jones, a.k.a. Tarsha Jones, called Toussaint a ?dumb coconut who probably don?t have a green card.? She also called striking workers "uneducated and overpaid losers who made the wrong choices in high school."

The comments have led activists within New York?s Caribbean community to call for an apology and Jones? dismissal from the station.

"CGID calls on Hot 97 to take serious disciplinary action against Ms. Jones, failing which, the Institute will join with other organizations to mobilize the Caribbean-American community and New Yorkers on a whole, to withdraw financial support from Hot 97 FM Radio," said Rickford Burke, head of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID).

Burke has written a letter to Emmis Communications, owners of the station, demanding an apology, but none has come from either Jones or the company. Burke said the station?s refusal to apologize or hand down disciplinary action ?is profoundly unsettling.?

Similar cries for Jones? ousting came from the Asian community following her disparaging comments after the Asian tsunami.

Eurweb