Newspaper Calls Obama the 'N-Word' in Headline

A New York City community newspaper is taking heat today for running the headline "The N***er in the White House," but without the asterisks—with a column that's pro-Obama, the Daily News reports. James Collier's ironically headlined piece in the WestView News attacks what he calls the "racism" of far-right Americans: "The simple truth is that there is still in America an irreducible measure of racism," he writes, the New York Post reports (WestView News didn't publish it online). "America’s increasing tolerance of far-right opinion has made racism more acceptable." Predictably, reactions were none too favorable:

• "How do you refer to Jews, Mexicans, Muslims and Asians? Just curious," tweeted @DonnaBee511.
• "It’s disrespectful in any context to refer to the president of the United States as the N-word," said a fellow New Yorker.
• Even the West Village paper that published it ran a piece on the same page opposing it: "I don’t see how its use benefits anyone, but I do feel all too clearly how it deeply offends me," writes Alvin Hall.
• The monthly paper's editor rose to its defense, saying "the editorial staff continues to object" to using the N-word, but Collier wanted to "shock us into accepting that there are people who believe and use this outrageous word."

(More n-word stories.)