America’s News Headquarters co-host Kelly Wright and ten other staffers of color are suing Fox News for racial discrimination. In a press conference, a tearful Wright described his experience as Fox News' only black male anchor, and said that he wants to ensure whoever fills his shoes “doesn’t have to go through what I went through.”

At the conference, Wright said that he tried to push Fox News into covering issues that affected diverse communities from a non-attacking or aggressive angle, but says his ideas fell “on deaf ears” because they showed black people in a positive light.

Though the anchor is suing Fox News, his agenda is not to “take down” the company, but instead to open the it to “the value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace.”

Wright said that he struggled with whether or not he wanted to go forward with the lawsuit, but was inspired by bravery of Tichaona Brown and Tabrese Wright— two black accountants at Fox News who were also discriminated against.

Wright believes he was shutout of Bill O'Reilly's late show, The O'Reilly Factor, and was frequently questioned by the company's current co-president with queries like: "How do black people react to you' and 'How do you think white viewers look at you?"

Wright's suit comes on the heels of allegations of a culture of sexual harassment at the company, and of widespread discrimination based on race. Among other things, executives at Fox News have been accused of forcing black women employees to arm wrestle their white women colleagues.

With regards to his suit, Wright said, "This hurts. I am here reluctantly because I prefer sitting behind an anchor desk delivering news to you, the viewer — reporting, delivering the news … I am here reluctantly because I am not against any man or woman at Fox News. The truth is I admire, I like and even love the people who I work with and for. But I don’t like what they do."

Kelly Wright

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