White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest has played down the controversy surrounding comedian Larry Wilmore using the N-word while addressing President Barack Obama Saturday night. Saturday Night Live cast member Sasheer Zamata tweeted “I LOVE it”.
Advertisement
Earnest said the president “appreciated the spirit of the sentiments that Mr. Wilmore expressed”.
The one in “-er” is unmistakable – it’s an attempt by white people to dehumanize and denigrate and demean black people, to make them less than human. Bernie Sanders, who was in attendance, when he said: “Bernie, you look like a million bucks. To put it in terms you’ll understand, you look like 37,000 donations of $27 each”.
“I don’t think you get invited to something like this after what I did”, he said.
Comedian Larry Wilmore speaks during the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner on April 30, 2016 at the Washington Hilton hotel in Washington. Wilmore took the time to clarify the difference between this word, and what he actually said.
During ABC’s The View on Monday, co-host Sunny Hostin expressed her displeasure with Wilmore’s joke.
Wilmore knew what he was getting into with the word he used, which necessarily provokes a heated and divisive response.
Right now Black Privilege is the freedom to call the President of the United States by a racist name.
Earnest told the radio company it was understandable that the comedian used the n-word and other racial epithets in order to describe an imaginary comment by Andrew Jackson about Ben Carson, and then in reference to Obama.
And while some of his most blistering material was aimed at President Obama, who cringed at pointed jokes about drone warfare and Guantanamo Bay, Wilmore also ended on a heartfelt, albeit controversial, note of admiration for the country’s first African American president.
Advertisement
Ironically, last month Hillary Clinton and Bill de Blasio were skewered for a sophomoric campaign joke based on the old description of CPT (colored people time) – a stereotype that black-hosted events never start on time.
