Mar 19, 2008 10:19 pm US/Central
Obama Camp Rejects Supporter's Past Use Of N Word
It's Third Time Campaign Is Forced To Denounce Controversial Comments
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Sen. Barack Obama is target for critics again Wednesday night in another incident involving a minister and race.
Without permission from CBS 2, the Fox News Channel ran Wednesday evening parts of a 2- year-old story by CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery on language used by State Sen. James Meeks, who is now a delegate pledged to Obama.
"We don't have slave masters, we got mayors," Meeks said then while preaching. "But they are still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able to be educated. You got some preachers that are house n------. You got some elected officials that are house n------. Rather than them try and break this up, they're gonna fight you to protect that white man."
When confronted in 2006 about his divisive language, Meeks initially defended it.
"The word n----- is not, in the African American community, a bad word," Meeks said. "It's a term of endearment and I don't see it as derogatory or offensive."
"No one will be offended by it, except an individual it applies to," he added.
An important part of the truth that Fox News did not report Wednesday night is this: Shortly after Flannery's story aired two years ago, Rev. Jesse Jackson said it was time to stop using the N-word. And Rev. Meeks announced from his South Side pulpit that he was "retiring" the N-word from his vocabulary.
Although Meeks was never very close to Obama, last month he was elected as a delegate pledged to Obama.
Look for Obama's critics to repeat this tactic in the weeks and months to come. Sen. Hillary Clinton demanded he denounce Louis Farrakhan. Obama did. Tuesday, it was his longtime pastor.
An Obama spokesperson told CBS 2 Wednesday night: "Sen. Obama has appeared at hundreds of churches and served with scores of colleagues and can hardly be expected to be held responsible for all that they say."
The man Meeks once called a "slavemaster," Mayor Richard Daley, is enthusiastically backing Obama, as is Daley's brother, Bill Daley, who once served as Bill Clinton's commerce secretary.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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