On his radio show on Tuesday, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh said the word “nigga” is no longer racist, citing an interview with a witness from the George Zimmerman murder trial.
In an interview on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” the night before, Rachel Jeantel, a witness for the prosecution in the recent Zimmerman trial, explained that certain words once considered racial epithets don’t have the same meaning as they once did.
“Stick with me,” Limbaugh said. “Keep your eyes on the radio. CNN informs us via Rachel Jeantel that Trayvon called Rachel and said that he was being followed by a ‘creepy ass cracka,’ which we have now learned that is a person acting like they are a police, or like a security guard. So then, Piers Morgan, the ever-penetrating inquisitor, said, ‘So was there anything you wished you had said when you were in there?’ meaning as a witness on the stand.”
Limbaugh then played the interview with Jeantel from CNN and concluded it was OK for him to say “nigga” because Jeantel said it wasn’t racist.
“This was between 9 and 10 p.m. last night on CNN, who is in a quest to become the, again, most respected news organization in the country, perhaps even in the world,” Limbaugh added. “So, ‘nigga,’ with an ‘a’ on the end — well I think I can now. Isn’t that the point — because it’s not racist? That’s the point. I could be talking about a male, I could be — a Chinese male, a guy at the laundromat — I could be talking about a man. That’s what she said it means.”