Watch Baltimore councilman shut down CNN host who calls teens thugs

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A Baltimore Councilman had time.

If you’ve been paying attention to mainstream media lately and the current events happening in Baltimore, the word “thug” has been used widely to describe teenagers who have been part of the protests.

The term “Thug” is a word that media routinely has used for a long time, in my opinion, to dehumanize Black Americans, particularly Black men.

When CNN Host Erin Burnett tried to justify using the word “thug” to describe teenagers who clashed with Baltimore police, Baltimore councilman Carl Stokes quickly put Burnett in her place.

“Just call them niggers,” he said, obviously exasperated by Burnett’s insistence that this was the right term for 13-18 year-old kids.

 

Burnnet tried to justify the use of “thug” by citing both Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and President Obama‘s use of the word, saying it was appropriate in this case.

“Of course it’s not the right word to call our children thugs. These are children who have been set aside, marginalized who have not been engaged by us,” Stokes said.

“But how does that justify what they did?,” Burnett interrupted. 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.”

That’s when Stokes exploded on Burnett, implying the term was a racial code for something more sinister.

“Come on? So calling them thugs? Just call them n–ers. Just call them n**gers,” Stokes replies. “No. We don’t have to call them by names such as that. We don’t have to do that.”

Watch it on YouTube.