PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) -- The longtime chairman of the Roger Williams University board admitted Monday to using the N-word during a board meeting, saying it "kind of slipped out."I'm imagining a longer version of the explanation: "I'd been listening to rap music on the radio for quite some time--something about those dope beats reminds me of my carefree days as a boy--and I couldn't help but notice this particular word they kept using. I had never heard it before, so I went to the dictionary to look it up. Said it was a 'Derogatory term for African-Americans.' Well, shoot, everybody knows that if you want to make a new word you learn stick, you need to use it yourself three times. So then I let it slip out in a board meeting, and all hell breaks loose."
[...]
[Eighty-year old] Papitto, who has given the school at least $7 million and whose name is on the only law school in Rhode Island, said he had never used the term before.
"The first time I heard it was on television or rap music or something," he told WPRO.
welcome! jeremy freese is a professor in sociology at northwestern university. he finds blogging to be a good diversion from insomnia and a far better use of time than television.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
the most unlikely claim i have read this year
From story on CNN.com:
Wow. I had an interview at that school last year. I'm glad I ended up in Vegas instead. They pay better here, and I'm told Rhode Island is pretty socially closed to newcomers.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the n-word thing.