Have we reached a point where we are so comfortable with past that the N word is acceptable.
A local Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, official is refusing to apologize for describing Barack Obama as "that ******* ******" because, according to him, Obama "meets and exceeds my criteria" for use of that word. Oh, and he says he's not a racist, of course.
Bob Copeland, a member of the town's three-person police commission, was overheard using the phrase by Wolfeboro resident Jane O'Toole, who complained of the incident to his supervisor, commission chairman Joseph Balboni Jr. In response, she received a letter from Copeland himself, who offered this non-apology:
While I believe the problems associated with minorities in this country are momentous, I am not phobic. My use of derogatory slang in reference to those among them undeserving of respect is no secret. It is the exercise of my 1st Amendment rights... I believe I did use the “N” word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse [sic]. For this I do not apologize – he meets and exceeds my criteria for such.
This defense makes it sound like Copeland, who is 82 years old and a former lawyer, thinks the n-word is akin to say, "jerk," or "loser," which are both slightly rude but not-raced based ways to describe someone you don't respect. That opinion appears to be shared by Balboni, who told the New Hampshire Union Leader that "this has been blown way out of proportion."
O'Toole wrote about her experience in a letter published in the Granite State News, which she shared on Facebook
A local Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, official is refusing to apologize for describing Barack Obama as "that ******* ******" because, according to him, Obama "meets and exceeds my criteria" for use of that word. Oh, and he says he's not a racist, of course.
Bob Copeland, a member of the town's three-person police commission, was overheard using the phrase by Wolfeboro resident Jane O'Toole, who complained of the incident to his supervisor, commission chairman Joseph Balboni Jr. In response, she received a letter from Copeland himself, who offered this non-apology:
While I believe the problems associated with minorities in this country are momentous, I am not phobic. My use of derogatory slang in reference to those among them undeserving of respect is no secret. It is the exercise of my 1st Amendment rights... I believe I did use the “N” word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse [sic]. For this I do not apologize – he meets and exceeds my criteria for such.
This defense makes it sound like Copeland, who is 82 years old and a former lawyer, thinks the n-word is akin to say, "jerk," or "loser," which are both slightly rude but not-raced based ways to describe someone you don't respect. That opinion appears to be shared by Balboni, who told the New Hampshire Union Leader that "this has been blown way out of proportion."
O'Toole wrote about her experience in a letter published in the Granite State News, which she shared on Facebook
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