Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is being called a hypocrite after using the N-word while speaking to reporters about his treatment since sexually-explicit text messages he sent to his former aide came to light.
"In the past 30 days, I've been called a nigger more than anytime in my entire life," said Kilpatrick, 37. "In the past three days, I've received more death threats than I have in my entire administration."
Kilpatrick's use of the slur drew a sharp response from state Attorney General Mike Cox, who called it "race-baiting on par with David Duke and George Wallace" on Wednesday and said the mayor should step down for the good of the city and region, reports the Associated Press.
"What he said cannot be unsaid, and he is not fit to be mayor anymore," Cox, who is white, said in an interview on WJR-AM. "He's a very talented guy, but he has overstayed his day. He should resign, he should quit, whether he's charged or not."
Kilpatrick faces possible perjury charges from testimony during a whistle-blowers' trial and criticism over the text messages he sent to his former top aide, Christine Beatty. In a trial over a lawsuit against the city brought by two police officers who said they were wrongly fired, Kilpatrick and Beatty denied under oath that they had been romantically involved.
Kilpatrick spokesman James Canning said of the mayor's use of the N-word: "He was explaining to the citizens of Detroit the situation he and his family have been put in by some very vile individuals who have decided they will thrust upon he and his family some very threatening forms of communications."
Some black leaders criticized Kilpatrick, saying he chose the wrong forum and wrong language for his outburst.
"It most especially was not a place to use the same word that, supposedly, we buried last summer," said the Rev. Edgar Vann, pastor of Second Ebenezer Baptist Church in Detroit. "You can make references to it without using it."
But others said the context in which the mayor used the word should be considered.
"He was trying to make a point. He wasn't using it in the typical vernacular," said Richard J. McIntire, the national spokesman for the NAACP.
At a gathering in Detroit last July to symbolically bury the N-word, Kilpatrick stood before hundreds of people and proclaimed: "Die, N-word, and we don't want to see you 'round here no more."
