Black activists aren’t happy with CNN anchorman Chris Cuomo calling the term “Fredo” a slur against Italian-Americans equivalent to the n-word.
In a vulgar tirade in which Mr. Cuomo uses forms of the f-word 24 times and the sh-word five times in less than two minutes, the anchorman threatened to assault a man who called him “Fredo.”
Conservatives “use it as an Italian aspersion,” he also said. “It’s a f—ing insult to your people, an insult to your f—ing people. It’s like the n-word for us. That’s a cool f—ing thing” to say?
Members of Project 21, a tax-exempt black conservative group that is a project of the National Center for Public Policy Research, were not amused, noting that Mr. Cuomo had called himself “Fredo,” a reference to the weak and stupid Corleone brother in the “Godfather” films, and didn’t blink when non-Italians used it during his show.
“’Fredo’ is a fictional character. Cuomo once compared himself to Fredo, by name, on air,” said Deroy Murdock, a project member and nationally syndicated columnist. “Meanwhile, the n-word is a vicious anti-black epithet and arguably the ugliest expression in the English language. CNN’s Chris Cuomo is confused, but even he should understand this distinction.”
Christopher Arps, a national advisory board member for the conservative group, called Mr. Cuomo’s claims “liberal logic.”
“This is America in 2019. CNN has a white man of wealth and privilege who hails from a prominent political family. He claims he’s the victim of a very questionable slur,” he said.
Political consultant Richard Holt, an elected member of the Franklin County (Ohio) Republican Central Committee, called Mr. Cuomo’s calling “Fredo” the Italian n-word “just another example of the prevailing attitude among liberals that any kind of criticism of any kind is an overt act of bigotry and racism.”
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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