In the face of strong and widespread protests, a radio disc jockey (DJ) has apologized for her racist lyrics against the victims of the tsunami disaster in South and South East Asia.

Tarsha Jones, known as Miss Jones, caused a furor when her show on New York’s WQHT-FM, also known as Hot 97 radio station, aired racist lyrics sung to the tune of ‘We are the World’ between Jan. 16 and 21.

The lyrics went: “...all at once you could hear the screaming chinks and no one is safe from the wave. There were Africans drowning, little chinamen swept away. You could hear God laughing “swim you b..ches swim....” as well as “Go find your mommy, I just saw her float by/A tree went through her head, and now the children will be sold to child slavery.”

In the middle of the segment, one of the DJs can be heard saying “I’m gonna start shooting Asians.” The DJ offered an on-air apology but that did not save her and her team’s indefinite suspension by Emmis Radio, the owners of the station. “What happened is morally and socially indefensible,” Emmis Radio president Rick Cummings was quoted as saying.

“All involved, myself included, are ashamed and deeply sorry. I know that the members of the morning team are contrite. They know their actions here are inexcusable.” The link to the lyrics has been pulled off by the radio station, and the Website www.hot97.com says it and the host “Miss Jones” the D.J., “regret the airing of material that made light of a serious and tragic event,” adding, “As an additional sign of Hot 97’s commitment to the cause, ‘Miss Jones in the Morning,’ along with her entire staff, have agreed to contribute one week’s pay to tsunami relief efforts.”

But New York Councillors and others have called for firing the host and written a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC spokesperson said only if material was “sexually explicit” or presented a “clear and present danger,” could action be taken. The issue attracted a lot of media attention within the New York media with papers such as NewsDay, Daily News and Metro reported the story.

Meanwhile, The Philadelphia Radio Station WUSL-FM (Power 99), owned by Clear Channel Communications, aired one such on Jan. 5, where the radio hosts Star and Buc Wild talked to a woman at a call center in India and used epithets as well as racist language, and called the woman answering their call, “a b….ch” and “rat eater.”

The Indian American community and media publicized the offensive call, the shock-jocks were suspended, and New York attorney Rahul Manchanda filed a complaint with the FCC.