NYC newspaper shocks with N-word headline about Obama

A newspaper that’s based in the Manhattan borough of New York City, West Village, has sent shockwaves through the community with a Monday headline that references the “N-word” in the White House — only spells it out.

As shocking as the headline is, however, the story itself by James Lincoln Collier is pro-President Obama, the New York Post said. It’s titled “The [N-word] in the White House” and blares across Page 15 in the opinion section, above text that then blasts the “racism” of far-right voters against Mr. Obama.

Despite the pro-president message, West Villages were outraged, the New York Post reported.

“It’s disrespectful in any context to refer to the president of the United States as the N-word,” said one local resident, Eugene May, in the New York Post. “If you were quoting something or referring to the historic context of the word being used, I can understand the justification. … It seems [the writer] is just using it for shock value.”

Another reader, Joe Megie, who described himself as a “black Republican,” also condemned the headline, calling it “sad,” the New York Post reported.

The newspaper’s 86-year-old editor, George Capsis, said in a written explanation that “the editorial staff continues to object” to use of the racial slur, the New York Post reported. “In this article, however, [the writer] reminded me that The New York Times avoids using the word, which convinced me that West View should. [Collier] wanted to use the word [to] shock us into accepting that there are people who believe and use this outrageous word.”

Mr. Collier opined in his piece that “far-right voters hate Obama because he is black,” the New York Post reported. He also wrote: “The simple truth is that there is still in America an irreducible measure of racism” and that “America’s increasing tolerance of far-right opinion has made racism more acceptable.”