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Was Larry Wilmore out of line for using the racial epithet when referencing the nation’s first Black president?
Despite several funny punch lines, everyone wasn’t laughing after Comedy Central’s Larry Wilmoregot a little too comfortable with President Barack Obama during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
As Wilmore closed his monologue, the comedian turned to Obama and said, “Mr. President, I’m going to keep it 100 — Yo Barry, you did it, my n*gga.”
On Monday’s edition of NewsOne Now, guest host Paul Berry and his panel of guests discussed the use of the racial epithet as an apparently affectionate term for the president.
While Dr. Cleo Manago took issue with the use of the word, NewsOne Now panelist Yolanda Young had a completely different stance.
Young explained that “as a storyteller,” she could appreciate Wilmore was leading up to “that kind of ending” as he proceeded through his comments:
“The only thing that would have been Blacker is if he’d had all the Black journalists at every table to throw out deck of cards and have Billy D. Williams walk through handing out blunts and Colt 45s.”
Young expounded upon her view, saying Wilmore was “being both sentimental and ironic, he was saying in this environment this night is about intimacy, and I want to say to you the most intimate personal thing that I can say to you.”
The NewsOne Now panelist went so far as to say Wilmore used the phrase “as the kind of thing that Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson, Jr. would say to each other in quiet living rooms.”
She then reiterated Wilmore used the word in an “ironic way.”
Watch guest host Paul Berry, Yolanda Young, and the rest of the NewsOne Now panelists discuss Comedy Central’s Larry Wilmore using the n-word during his remarks at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in the video clip above.
SOUND OFF: Do you feel that Wilmore’s comments were appropriate?
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SOURCE: NewsOne.com
Article and Video Courtesy of NewsOne
Picture Courtesy of Getty Images and NewsOne
