Amy Robach Apologizes For Saying ‘Colored People’ On ‘Good Morning America’

Good Morning America’s Amy Robach was forced to issue an apology after using an outdated racial term on the show Monday.

Amy Robach Apologizes

Robach was co-anchoring a segment about diversity in Hollywood on GMA Monday. Robach and George Stephanopoulos were specifically discussing Zendaya‘s casting as Mary-Jane Watson in the forthcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming movie with a call-in contributor to the program when she made the gaffe.

“We all know Hollywood has received recent and quite a bit of criticism for casting white actors in what one might assume should be a role reserved for colored people,” Robach said, seemingly unaware that she had caused offense.

Twitter immediately blew up with criticism for Robach, with many believing that she should have known better than to use the term “colored people,” which has long been seen as outdated.

Deborah E. McDowell, director of the University of Virginia’s Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies, explained the problem with using the term “colored people” in 2016 to the New York Post.

“We no longer use the term colored people, although once upon a time that was a term in use,” McDowell said. “Now the preferred usage is people of color if you are speaking about people of color broadly. If you are referring specifically to African-Americans, people will frequently be specific and refer to us as African-Americans.”

Following the backlash, Robach issued an apology, which stated that she had actually meant to say the more acceptable term “people of color.” Robach’s full statement reads: “This morning during a segment about Hollywood casting, I mistakenly said ‘colored people’ instead of ‘people of color.’ I sincerely apologize. It was a mistake and is not at all a reflection of how I feel or speak in my everyday life.”