WOWT Screenshot
Even as the country celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, one Omaha, Neb., resident had a “N—ger Obama” sign posted up in his window for all to see, WOWT reports.
When confronted by WOWT reporter John Chapman, who is black, Steve Bowman admitted that the sign might be “a little racist,” adding that he knows all about the connotations, given that he grew up in the ’60s.
“Well, I grew up in the ’60s; I remember racial riots. I know Martin Luther King. I’m 57, so I grew up in the late ’50s, early ’60s, and I know what it’s like, the water guns, the racial riots and Birmingham,” Bowman said. “You know, the South, I know all about it. I have a master’s degree in history. It might be a little racist.”
Some of Bowman’s neighbors are aware of the racially charged display, but one neighbor, Rigina Wright, tries to be King-like in her approach.
“He’s been putting up stuff like that constantly. Constantly putting up stuff like that, and I’ll bring it up to him gently, you know, ‘Take that down, please; you know this is not the neighborhood for that,’” Wright, who is black and lives across the street with her two young children, told the news station. “He understands and he will take it down after I mention it to him, but then he’ll put something else up.”
By the end of the news segment, Chapman had convinced Bowman to take the sign with the n-word out of his window.
“He’s a good neighbor but he just has some racial issues he needs to overcome,” Wright said.
Read more at WOWT.