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This article contains explicit and potentially offensive terms that are essential to reporting on this situation.
Dennis Lehane, the novelist, has apologized for using a racial slur during his commencement speech Sunday at Emerson College, Boston Magazine reported. The slur came when he was talking about Boston during the 1970s school-busing controversy. He noted that opponents of the desegregation plan shouted "niggers out" at various protests. His use of the slur bothered many, who took to social media to ask why it was necessary to use the word in a commencement address. Several noted that Emerson responded quickly when it found someone had written the word on campus, but the college didn't seem concerned by the commencement address.
Lehane's statement Monday said that the word is “the most offensive word in the English language” and that he used it “in the context of the times in which I was describing, to show exactly how ugly those times were …. If, in an attempt to convey that with absolute authenticity, I managed to offend, then I apologize to those who were offended.”
The college issued a statement that said, “Emerson College is aware that some individuals objected on social media to a specific instance in Dennis Lehane’s commencement address in which he referenced and denounced a racist slogan commonly used by some groups and individuals in the mid-1970s during the Boston school-busing crisis. Emerson commends Mr. Lehane for his prompt and thoughtful response.”
