A local New York newspaper ran an op-ed that used the N-word in its headline about President Barack Obama.
The op-ed, in the monthly West View News of the West Village in New York, by James Lincoln Collier, was actually not a piece criticizing Obama. Collier argued that “far right voters hate Obama because he is black.”
“The simple truth is that there is still in America an irreducible measure of racism,” the op-ed said. “America’s increasing tolerance of far-right opinion has made racism more acceptable.”
The New York Post printed an image (pictured) of the headline with the n-word blurred out.
The West View News also ran a column below Collier’s by Alvin Hall, an African-American columnist, titled “This headline offends me.”
According to West View News editor George Capsis Collier was able to convince him to print the headline even though the editorial staff had reservations.
“The editorial staff continues to object,” Capsis told the Post. “In this article, however, Jim reminded me that The New York Times avoids using the word which convinced me that West View should.”
Collier, according to Capsis, wanted the headline to “shock us into accepting that there are people who believe and use this outrageous word.”
See the full page with both op-eds below:
(H/t: Yahoo News)
Gee, what could possibly go wrong?
Yeah, the GOTP doesn’t hate Obama because he’s black; they hate him because he’s a Marxist, socialist, communist who just happens to be from Kenya.
Geez, you journalists…
Eh. It was a pretty dumb thing to do, but if there was only cluelessness and no malice (at African-Americans) behind it, it’s probably the sort of thing that should be forgotten rather than gawked at.
There’s a third option, too, which is that this was a cynical PR stunt designed to get thousands and thousands of people talking about this pissant paper, in which case forgetting it becomes an even better idea.
There’s free speech and there’s stupid speech.
There was once a “Peanuts” cartoon where Lucy says, “Charlie Brown, it goes without saying that you are a complete blockhead!”
Charlie Brown thinks for a moment as she’s walking away and then yells after her, “If it goes without saying, why did you have to say it?”
It does go without saying that there are a lot of people who think our president is a [racist expletive]. Not sure it was a good idea to say it.
(Peanuts dialog is from memory, may not be 100% correct.)