The 'innocent' racial slur that had a US news anchor taken off air

The news anchor who caused controversy by referring to Lady Gaga's performance at the Oscars as "jigaboo" has been taken off the air for three days.

Former beauty queen and Fox 8 News morning anchor Kristi Capel was impressed by Gaga’s “gorgeous voice” but said “it’s hard to really hear her voice with all the jigaboo music that she does, or whatever you want to call it … jigaboo haha”.

Gaga was performing a medley from The Sound of Music at the Academy Awards ceremony earlier this week and was embraced on stage by the film’s original star Julie Andrews.

Jigaboo is a derogatory term for a black person which originated in the US in the early 20^th century.

Capel apologised, tweeting: “I apologize if I offended you, I had no idea it was a word or what it meant. Thank you for watching”.

She then issued an on-air apology the following day: "I truly did not know the meaning of the word and would never intentionally use such hurtful language," she said.

However the anchor was taken off air for the rest of the week after the comment caused an uproar.

A statement from the broadcaster said Capel "regrets her actions and realises the impact of her mistake and the hurt she has caused."