A monthly newspaper published in New York’s West Village, called West View News, published an op-ed from columnist James Lincoln Collier, titled “N—-r in the White House,” sparking controversy and landing national headlines due to its wildly offensive and inappropriate word choice. Yet surprisingly, the paper, which circulates to about 20,000 people every month, backs that the opinion piece is actually a pro-Obama article.
The New York Post reports that Collier is arguing that “far right voters hate Obama because he is black” and criticizes the anti-black racism of so many voters. They allege that Collier used the word in order to “shock us into accepting that there are people who believe and use this outrageous word,” according to the publication’s editor and publisher, 86-year-old George Capsis.
As expected, the piece received quite the backlash from readers. West Villager, Eugene May quotes in the New York Post: “It’s disrespectful in any context to refer to the president of the United States as the N-word. If you were quoting something or referring to the historic context of the word being used, I can understand the justification. May continued, “It seems he’s just using it for shock value.”
Readers weren’t the only ones who recognized the poor taste of the headline. Capsis told the New York Post that “the editorial staff continues to object” the use and publication of the word, as it was unnecessary and called upon merely for the attention. Directly underneath the piece ran another opinion editorial by an Alvin Hall, an African-American columnist. The op-ed was titled, “The Headline Offends Me.”
An odd episode indeed. It seems as though the writer and editor are scrambling for readers, and proved that the only way to attract them is to be offensive.