Protesters at Channel 10 after Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Yumi Stynes race row

An on-air racism row between Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Yumi Stynes has sparked a protest outside Channel 10’s Sydney studio.

Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Yumi Stynes clashed when a discussion about Australia Day protests became heated, Stynes telling Kennerley she sounded racist.

Fallout from an on-air clash between Yumi Stynes and Kerri-Anne Kennerley has seen police called to a protest outside Channel Ten’s Sydney studios this morning.

The protest comes a day after Studio 10 guest panellist Stynes and co-host Kennerly clashed heatedly on-air on Monday, with Stynes accusing Kennerley of racism for saying “Invasion Day” protesters were not doing anything about sexual violence in remote indigenous communities.

Stynes cancelled a scheduled appearance on the panel show this morning, with Kennerley labelling that “unprofessional” as the pair clashed again on morning radio.

Yesterday’s discussion about Australia Day protests turned heated when Kennerley claimed many protesters were ignorant of Aboriginal women and children “being raped”.

"You're sounding quite racist right now." @yumichild says to Kerri-Anne as they clash over Australia Day & #ChangeTheDate. #Studio10 pic.twitter.com/qI2qBsiT9t

— Studio 10 (@Studio10au) January 27, 2019

Looking down the barrel of the camera, Kennerley said: “OK, the 5000 people who went through the streets making their points known, saying how inappropriate the day is. Has any single one of those people been out to the outback, where children, babies, five-year-olds are being raped? Their mothers are being raped, their sisters are being raped. They get no education. What have you done?”

Stynes fired back that the statements weren’t true and sounded “racist”.

Kennerley fired back: “I’m offended by that, Yumi.”

“Keep going then, because every time you open your mouth you’re sounding racist,” Stynes replied.

The exchange continued, with Kennerley saying at one point: “Just because I have a point of view, Yumi, doesn’t mean I’m racist.”

Stynes was booked to appear on the show again today, but posted to her Instagram account she would be absent.

She insisted it wasn’t because of yesterday’s clash.

Protesters are pictured outside the Channel 10’s Pyrmont studios this morning. Picture: Facebook

“I was booked come in to showcase a recipe from one of my cookbooks,” she posted.

“Instead, I decided to give myself the day off. This is not because of what happened today between Kerri-Anne and I. I am feeling stable and calm and like I’m on the right side of history. Everything is OK. I’m not coming in because I really urgently want to lie around and do nothing. It’s very important,” she wrote.

Late yesterday, Kennerley took to radio to defend herself, telling 2GB’s Ben Fordham her comments about sexual abuse in remote communities had “nothing to do” with racism.

“I can only assume that Yumi doesn’t know it is a fact of life because I never made a racist comment,” she said.

“I don’t think I’m superior, I don’t think anyone else is inferior, but I just stated a fact.”

She said she was offended by Stynes’ accusations she had sounded racist.

“I’m still offended by it, because that sort of headline you and I both know being in the media we will see that again and again, and as soon as you Google something Kerri-Anne’s a racist,” she said.

“I do take very big personal exception to being called a racist.”

The pair butted heads again on radio this morning: this time on the Kyle and Jackie O show, when host Kyle Sandilands phoned called Kennerley after Stynes told the radio show Kennerley was a “cockroach [who] can’t be extinguished”.

Kennerley slammed Stynes as Studio 10 went to air this morning.

“I think not turning up for work when you’ve been booked is seriously unprofessional,’ she told the rest of the panel.

Speaking to Kyle and Jackie O during ad breaks on Studio 10, she said Aboriginal figures Jacinta Price, mayor of Alice Springs, and former Victorian MP Lydia Thorpe would be on the show:

“I’m very sorry, Yumi, that you didn’t come in to be part of this, because it is an important debate,” she said, hanging up not long later to go back on air.

Stynes then had the last word to the radio hosts: “You know what I love? White people telling me about racism,” she said.