Carl Stokes: ‘Just Call Them N*****s’ Says Baltimore Councilman To CNN’s Erin Burnett [Video]


The below video of Carl Stokes having a heated conversation with CNN anchor Erin Burnett is surely lighting up internet. Stokes and Burnett debated the use of the word “thug” by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, City Council President Bernard (Jack) Young, and President Obama to describe those who looted CVS, Save-a-Lot, a Baltimore mall, and other places during the riots, as reported by the Inquisitr.

While certain members of the public applaud the mayor and the president for taking a hard line against looters and calling them thugs, others, like Stokes, beg to differ against that terminology. As seen in the video, Stokes seemed fed up with the rioters being called “thugs,” as if that word was being used as a euphemism for what folks really wanted to call them, which was a racial slur.

“Just call them n*****s.”

It was a facetious or sarcastic use of the ‘N word’ on CNN by Stokes, who didn’t actually want folks to call each other the slur. The Baltimore Sun states that Stokes’ use of the slur should provoke deeper discussion in a social media-driven world that doesn’t look beyond one slur.

Stokes explained that calling the protestors thugs just belittles the deeper issues as hand, namely police brutality, disenfranchisement of poor people, and larger issues. Councilman Carl told CNN anchor Burnett that she wouldn’t call her own child a “thug” if he or she did something wrong. However, Erin said she would indeed call her own child a thug if he did the kinds of things the looters and protestors did.

“They know it’s wrong to steal and burn down a CVS and an old person’s home. I mean, come on.”

“When you say ‘come on’, come on what? You wouldn’t call your a child a thug if they did something which was not what you’d expect them to do.”

For her part, Burnett seemed surprised by the “Just call them n*****s” statement, and since the slur was used live on air, as reported by the Daily Mail,, Erin was left to plow forward and ask other interviewees opinions on the debate over calling rioters “thugs.”

The fact that a Caucasian CNN anchor went on to chastise Stokes’ use of the word, as reported by Gawker, caught the eye of the publication when ?CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield took issue with Carl for saying the N word. Stokes explained that the use of the word “thug” is simply a code word for a racially-biased viewpoint.

[Image via YouTube]

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