Rock and roll legend Ted Nugent says President Obama’s use of the “n-word” in a recent podcast interview is a welcome sign of honest dialogue about race.
“The Honest Society is a rather large and growing club, clan if you will, that is not afraid of speaking honestly without fear of politically correct word nazi’s [sic],” the controversial guitar player wrote Wednesday in a provocative article titled “Don’t Be Niggardly With Language.”
Obama’s use of the well-known racial slur occurred this weekend, when he and comedian Marc Maron discussed a number of controversial topics, including racism in the United States and gun control.
“Racism, we are not cured of it,” Obama said in the interview, which was released Monday. “And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don’t, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.”
For Nugent, the president’s off-hand comment was a breath of fresh air, an honest moment at a time when people all too often tip-toe around the politically incorrect.
“The president’s use of the word as stated was honest and useful,” Nugent wrote. “His statement, this time, should be respected and learned from.”
“The dishonest referencing of the word by its first letter is the epitome of political correctness gone mad,” he wrote.
Nugent said the word can even be used in a positive way.
“I received the greatest compliment a musician could ever dream of when the word was used to describe my Motown touch,” he wrote.
“The word is used constantly across America in a friendly, even tribal greeting and salutation with no hint whatsoever of negativity nor hostility,” he added.
To ignore the word and avoid it outright, Nugent posited, is to engage in dishonest and even borderline racist behavior.
He said it makes no sense to ban the word every time it appears, and said doing so is “just plain dishonest, foolish, denies the truth and only hurts those we wish to protect the most.”
“What sort of goofball could possibly believe that certain words are OK for one group of people but forbidden by others? That, by the way, is the definition of racism,” he said.
“Until we as a people break free from the shackles of political correctness and honestly admit that words and context have meaning, we will continue to focus on nonsensical symbolism instead of meaningful upgrade,” Nugent said. “I for one would rather save lives, not worry about hurt feelings.”
(h/t Mediaite)
