A volunteer fire chief from Cecil Township, Pennsylvania, wasn’t happy the Steelers decided to skip the national anthem at a recent game against the Chicago Bears. In fact, he was so displeased he let his racism slip out on Facebook—and now, of course, he regrets it. Raw Story explains:
CBS Pittsburgh reports that Paul Smith, the chief of the volunteer fire department in Cecil Township, Pennsylvania, posted on Facebook that Tomlin “just added himself to the list of no-good n*ggers” for his decision to note take the field during the anthem.
“Yes, I said it,” Smith added afterward.
Many people in the town reacted angrily to Smith’s post, and said it was inappropriate for a town official to spout racism.
“I’m completely upset, especially for a town like this, coming from the fire chief, that’s disrespectful in my eyes,” said Cecil Township resident Dylan Pareso. “I don’t agree with it one bit.”
As are most white people who get caught saying racist things, he is now regretful. When he discovered the local news had covered his comment, the response came swiftly.
Chief Smith is out of the country on vacation, but on Facebook, he responded to KDKA:
“I am embarrassed at this. I want to apologize. I was frustrated and angry at the Steelers not standing the anthem. This had nothing to do with my Fire Department. I regret what I said.”
“My fire department should have never been dragged into this. It was a bad judgement by me, for which I am very embarrassed, for them and my township.”
Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t seem like an apology; he’s embarrassed because he got caught. I’m sure he wouldn’t hesitate to say he “doesn’t have a racist bone in his body,” but if getting upset over an NFL team’s actions is enough to trigger the typing out a racial slur on a public platform under his own name, he definitely has quite a few racist bones he should get checked out.