Hey, it’s fit to print!
Cuomo blames his N-bomb on Times
Gov. Cuomo on Sunday addressed for the first time the scandal over his use of the N-word, blaming the newspaper he was quoting for his decision to say the slur in full on the radio.
Cuomo had sparked outrage on Tuesday when he said the racist term while talking about attacks on Italian Americans, drawing criticism from prominent African Americans, including state Assemblyman Charles Barron, who said the governor “owes the black community an apology.”
But on Sunday, the governor pointed his finger at The New York Times for publishing the op-ed he was quoting from.
“That was the point of the article, and I directly quoted The New York Times,” he told reporters at a press conference to announce road improvements around Albany International Airport.
“You should ask The New York Times if they think it was appropriate,” he said after being pressed by a Post reporter over his decision to utter the racist slur in full.
“I was just quoting The New York Times. If I quoted The Post, I would say, ‘Talk to The Post.’ ”
Cuomo uttered the epithet during a live interview on WAMC radio’s “The Roundtable” Tuesday while citing a Times op-ed by Brent Staples. Headlined “How Italians Became ‘White,’ ” the piece details the past treatment of Italian Americans and quotes slurs used against Italian immigrants.
“They used an expression that Southern Italians were called, I believe they were saying southern Italians, Sicilians — I’m half Sicilian — were called, quote-unquote and pardon my language, but I’m just quoting the Times: ‘n- - - -r wops.’ N-word wops, as a derogatory comment,” Cuomo said.
Barron, a longtime activist and former Black Panther, blasted the utterance as “very inappropriate” and “disrespectful.”
“He has enough discriminatory words used against Italians not to use the N-word. You don’t have to throw us into it,” Barron said.
Longtime Cuomo critic Bertha Lewis, founder and president of the Black Institute, said, “There’s no comparison between black people and Italians. Because if he actually believed that, he would’ve done a far better job in his last two terms with my people.”
Others have defended Cuomo’s use of the word, given the message he was expressing.
State Sen. Kevin Parker of Brooklyn, who is African American, said Cuomo was using it in “a very specific, historical context.”
“The way he said it, it might have been inartful, but it wasn’t inaccurate and he was giving a source of context,” Parker said.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie of The Bronx, who is also African American, said it was clear Cuomo used the slur only “for context.”
Georgia Verdier, president of the NAACP’s upstate Corning-Elmira branch, praised the governor for his “powerful message regarding the ‘Cancer Within,’ known as racism,” according to WETM-TV.
You should ask The New York Times if they think it was appropriate . . . I was just quoting The New York Times. If I quoted The Post, I would say, ‘Talk to The Post.’ — Gov. Cuomo on Sunday