Canadian Politician Drops N-Bomb, but Says His Black Friends Are Cool with It

A Canadian politician casually dropped the n-bomb at a pizza joint, but don't worry, he says his black friends are OK with it and he has no need to apologize.

George Baker, an old white councillor in Amherst, Nova Scotia (an overwhelmingly white town of about 10,000 people) said, "I'm not your nigger" to a pizzeria staff while he was delivering pizzas for them last month. In a meeting yesterday, he addressed his comment saying, "I did not use any swear words or profanity." What's even worse than Baker's distorted understanding of the word profanity, is that the Amherst city council isn't going to do anything about his actions. Mayor Robert Small said that someone in the community sent him a letter of complaint after the town heard about Baker's comment and asked the council to look into it. The council concluded that they shouldn't have to deal with racist comments made by off-duty councillors. Instead, they said they would review their policies. Baker, who is also part of the Amherst Board of Police Commissioners, proceeded to pull the never-effective Black Friend Card. "Since then I have spoken to virtually all of my African-Canadian constituents, and I feel I have full support from those people that know me so well," he told CBC. "And they all told me there was no need to apologize to them because I did nothing wrong." According to Baker, he did apologize to the pizzeria staff, saying, "No one should ever say that word. I'm sorry." "I have always believed there is only one race," he also said in his statement. "The human race." OK. But forgive us for thinking that Baker doesn't seem to fully grasp the repercussions of what he said. This incident comes after recent events throughout the country disproved the popular perception that racism doesn't exist here in 'Sunny Ways' Canada. A few weeks ago, a Somali-Canadian man was beaten by Ottawa police outside a coffee shop after reports of groping, and he later died. Last month, a black man in New Brunswick was reading in his car when people called the police on him for being "suspicious." And with racial tension currently radiating throughout North America after several police-involved shootings of black people, this councillor's comments probably shouldn't go unnoticed. Follow Ebony-Renee Baker on Twitter.