Darknesses

A BBC radio anchor are eating her words today after being criticized by her own listeners for comments she made on her morning show.

Sarah Kennedy, a controversial British morning disc jockey, interrupted a discussion on road safety to say she almost ran over a black man who was wearing dark colored clothing because he was too dark for her to see.

"It's lucky he opened his mouth to yawn or do something and I saw him," she said on her show this morning.

Her comments immediately sparked rage in her listeners and provoked an apology from the corporation.

"This is just one in a long line of irresponsible remarks from Sarah Kennedy, but the BBC don't have a problem with her," one listener wrote on the BBC message board.

"OK in 1957 but not PC in 2007," another added.

"If this were the only occasion in which SK has made direct reference to race, you could let it go, but she has something of a chequered history in this respect," a third wrote.

In 2000, Kennedy said blacks made good runners because they were used to being chased by lions.

She also awed listeners when she offered to send panties to troops in Afghanistan to cheer them up.

While many listeners were outraged. some concurred with Kennedy's opinions about blacks and wearing dark clothing.

This is nothing to do with prejudice - it is a fact based on the science of light reflecting off objects," one wrote on one message board.

"Remember the campaign 'Wear Something White at Night'? Maybe a timely reminder of common sense was in order," another added.