The AFU and Urban Legend Archive
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 butz racist remark 




        In 1976 Earl Butz, the secretary of agriculture, resigned
        after it was widely publicized that he had made a racist
        remark.  Butz's statement had been: "I'll tell you what the
        coloreds want.  It's three things: first, a tight pussy;
        second, loose shoes; and third, a warm place to shit."

        Most people watched Butz make his exit without knowing
        exactly waht he had said.  The Associated Press sent out
        the uncensored quotation but, according to _Columbia
        Journalism Review_, only two newspapers printed it:
        Wisconsin's _Madison Capital Times_ and Ohio's _Toledo
        Blade_.  Other newspapers said Butz had derogatorily
        described blacks' "sexual, dress and bathroom predilections,"
        or that he had said "a tight [obscenity] ... a warm place
        to [vulgarism]," or otherwise cleaned up the language.
        ("Courageously." David Shaw of the _Los Angeles Times_
        commented, "...no editors dropped 'shoes' from Butz's
        remarks and substituted 'an article of footwear.'")

        Two newspapers provided ways for readers to see Butz's
        uncensored remarks.  The _Lubbock Avalanche-Journal_ in
        Texas announced that the original statement was available
        in the newspaper office, and more than two hundred people
        came to read it.  The _San Diego Evening Tribune_ offered
        to mail a copy to anyone who requested it, and more than
        three thousand people did so.

(cite provided by Barbara Hamel)


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