CNN anchor Andrew Cuomo claimed in August that his unflattering nickname “Fredo,” which is derived from the Godfather series, is “like the N-word” for Italian Americans.
This is obviously not true. But do you know what is like the N-word? The N-word, which the CNN host’s brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, dropped Tuesday during a live radio interview.
The governor’s remarks came amid the broader context of him complaining about the New York Times, which he claims does not know what it is talking about when it reports that his administration “pulled off a fiscal sleight of hand, delaying $1.7 billion in scheduled Medicaid payments by three days — effectively pushing the cost to the following year’s budget.”
“To tell you the truth,” Cuomo said, “I don’t even, I don’t understand that fully.”
His host, WAMC’s Alan Chartock, joked, “Well, if the Times said it so, it must be so, right?”
“Oh, well, yeah,” groused the governor. “Oh, Times also said in an article the other day, apropos of nothing, they were talking about — going back the Italian-Americans because you now have me. They used an expression that southern Italians were called. I believe they were saying southern Italians, Sicilians — I am half Sicilian — were called, quote-unquote, and pardon my language, but I am just quoting the Times, ‘[N-word] wops.’ N-word wops as a derogatory comment.”
The New York Times article to which Cuomo is referring is an Oct. 12 op-ed titled, “How Italians Became ‘White.’” It includes the following passage:
Cuomo had at least three separate racist insults from which to choose and he quoted on live radio the one slur that combines two separate racial epithets. Solid work, my man.
The governor continued Tuesday, railing against the failing New York Times, saying, “When I said that ‘wop’ was a derogatory comment, that is when the Times Union told me, ‘No, you should look in Wikipedia. ‘Wop’ really meant a ‘dandy.’”
“I am sure that’s what they was saying to me back in Queens — ‘You’re a dandy!’ – when they looked at me with scorn, and gave me a hand gesture and called me a ‘wop.’ So, that’s the New York Times,” he added.
A quick word of clarification: If you are confused by the governor’s reference to the Times Union during his tirade about the New York Times, you should be. They are two separate New York-based news entities. Cuomo conflated the New York Times’ Oct. 12 article with an Aug. 16 Times Union op-ed, which argued that “wop” is actually derived from the word “guappo,” which is Italian for “dude” or “dandy,” as opposed to “without papers,” as the governor claims.
To recap: You have the governor of New York using the N-word for no good reason on live radio. You have his little brother claiming “Fredo” is like the N-word for Italian Americans. This same little brother, by the way, also once said that the term “fake news” is “the equivalent of the N-word for journalists.”
All of this is to say: What is it with the Cuomos and that word?
