So this happened.
A New York publication was forced to apologize after publishing an opinion piece written by James Lincoln Collier, which was entitled: “The N***** in the White House.”
The shocking headline, seen in the West View News, graced a mostly pro-President Obama piece that criticizes the anti-black racism of far-right voters.
Collier wrote: “These far right voters hate Obama because he is black. The simple truth is that there is still in America an irreducible measure of racism.”
But the use of the racial epithet to reference Obama was too much of a glaring error for readers to overlook.
“It’s disrespectful in any context to refer to the president of the United States as the N-word,” said one West Villager, Eugene May.
“If you were quoting something or referring to the historic context of the word being used, I can understand the justification,” said May, 31.
Fellow West Villager Joe Megie, a self-described “black Republican,” also blasted the headline.
“My first take is, it’s sad,” said Megie, 38, the CFO of Gay Men’s Health Crisis.
The newspaper’s 86-year-old editor/publisher, George Capsis, now has similar sentiments, writing that he did not follow the advice of his staff, who “continues to object to the use of the word.”
“He (Collier) did not realize how loaded that word was. He was very proud of what he did. He thought any black who read that article would say, ‘how brilliant, how sympathetic, how intelligent you are’,” Capsis said.
“He wanted to demonstrate that there were still these extreme, hateful, unthinking, unreasoning voices out there.”
He went on: “My staff were vehement. I thought that they were wrong. Now in retrospect I realize that I was wrong. You just can’t use that word anymore, even if you are on the right side.”
He continued:
“Even the most liberal of liberals can’t use that word if he is not black. The word itself triggers such a deep emotional and traumatic response that reason is gone,” he said.
And he’s just figuring that out? Interesting. To read Collier’s entire article, click here.
SOURCE: NY Post, The Independent | PHOTO CREDIT: West View News/Screengrab
