CNN host Erin Burnett asked Baltimore Councilman Carl Stokes what he thought of President Barack Obama and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake calling rioters "thugs" and he said it was the same as calling them "n*****s."
"Of course it's not the right word to call our children thugs," Stokes, who is African-American, said in response to Burnett's question in their Tuesday night interview, the
New York Daily News reported. "These are children who have been set aside, marginalized who have not been engaged by us."
"But how does that justify what they did? That's a sense of right and wrong. They know it's wrong to steal and burn down a CVS and an old person's home. I mean, come on," Burnett responded.
"Come on? Calling them thugs? Just call them n*****s," Stokes said. "Just call them n*****s. No, we don't have to call them by names such as that. We don't have to do that."
"You wouldn't call your child a thug if they should do something that would not be what you would want them to do," Stokes added.
"I would hope I would call my son a thug if he ever did such a thing," Burnett replied.
Rawlings-Blake eventually apologized for using the word thugs, but White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest declined to apologize on Obama's behalf for using the word.
MSNBC's Alex Wagner held a panel on the word "thug," which many perceive as having racially charged undertones, on Wednesday.
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