It’s 2013 And Utah Finally Hired Its First Black Local News Anchor

It’s 2013 so you’d be hard-pressed to travel anywhere and not find a black face on the local news. I mean, even Pawnee, Indiana has Perd Hapley. And now, finally, Salt Lake City, Utah — arguably the whitest place in America next to Portland, Oregon — is getting its first black local news anchor, Nadia Crow.

Reports the Salt Lake City Tribune:

In Utah, Crow is the first African-American to land a regular news anchoring gig at a Salt Lake television station.

It’s rather remarkable that it took until the year 2013 for that to happen. And it’s one of the reasons Crow took the job in Utah despite offers from other stations. And despite the fact that KTVX is in the early stages of a major rebuilding process after a series of ownership changes, layoffs and staff turnover.

“I knew it would be a challenge coming here with the struggles they’ve had, but chaos creates opportunity,” she said. “So I looked at it more as a challenge. And knowing that I would be the first African-American anchor was also a challenge that I wanted to take on.”

This whole thing reminds me of a recent Bill Simmons podcast in which Jalen Rose revealed that as an NBA player he and other black athletes would, when in Salt Lake City to play the Utah Jazz, often resort to “importing” women from other cities because, well, you can probably figure it out.

(Lead images via Nadia Crow’s Facebook page)

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