Sentence:  Sponsor quotes John McLendon of the McLendon-Ebony station group as saying that the Southern Negro is becoming conscious of quality and and `` does not wish to be associated with radio which <WSD>is</WSD> any way degrading to his race ; he tends to shy away from the hooting and hollering personalities that originally made Negro radio programs famous '' . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)