Black Man on TV

last updated 8 January 2015

Paris

France broke a racial barrier this week when a black man anchored the prime-time news on the main commercial television channel. Harry Roselmack is filling in for channel TF1’s regular anchor, who’s on vacation until the end of August. French newspapers treated the event as a major milestone, describing Roselmack as “gorgeous,” “talented,” and “full-lipped, with the face of a pharaoh.” Smaller French channels have used black anchors in the past, but only during non-prime-time newscasts. TF1’s 8 p.m. newscast draws 9 million viewers every night, nearly half of the French viewing public. Roselmack tried to downplay the hoopla. “When I do interviews, I am neither black nor white, neither man nor woman,” he told Le Figaro. “I am a journalist.”