A candidate for Southampton Village Board in the June 16 election placed a call to Village Police last summer and used a racial slur when referring to a group of black men who were standing in front of her home in the Hillcrest neighborhood.
Valerie Smith, who is white, on Friday confirmed that she made the call, and used the slur, after a recording was obtained by The Press on Friday via a Freedom of Information Law request—and she went on to defend her use of the word, and used it several more times in an interview.
The call, made at 6:17 p.m. on August 5, 2016, from her residence on Windward Way, included Ms. Smith reporting that there were “a bunch of niggers” standing in front of her house, drinking “Hennessy.” She asked to have a police officer sent to her street to get them away from her house.
A source told The Press about the call made to Village Police, and the recording. A FOIL request was submitted, and a copy of the recording was provided by the village, since it is a public record.
Without even hearing the recording on Friday, Ms. Smith, 53, confirmed that she had made the call, and repeatedly used the “n-word” throughout a phone call with a reporter.
On Friday, Ms. Smith said her use of the racial slur was no big deal, and she should be entitled to use it whenever she wants. She suggested that comedian Eddie Murphy made a career out of using the word, and added that she grew up hearing it on television in the 1970s show “All in the Family.”
“Now, all of a sudden, I can’t use it?” Ms. Smith said in a phone interview on Friday. “Sorry—I live in a black neighborhood. I came here and didn’t see color.”
Ms. Smith said she purchased the home in the largely African-American Hillcrest neighborhood nearly six years ago. She said she converted a “rodent-infested dump” into an oasis. “I came into this neighborhood colorblind,” she said. “… When you are a pioneer, like I am, it’s not easy. I’m the only white person who owns and lives on this street.”
!snip!
It sounds like she was caught on tape and simply decided to try and normalize it by saying it over and over.
It’s a bold move, Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for her.
There is no mention of her political party, which usually means the person of interest is a democrat.
I’m not sure there are any republicans in Southampton, and her Facebook page says she attended The New School, which is an experimental progressive college.
Know how you keep a bunch of ‘yak’-swillin’ homies from hanging around your front yard?
Hang them in the back.
Come on, they weren’t drinkin’ “Hennessy,” they were drinkin’ Thunderbird, the wine of Champions.
“When you are a pioneer, like I am, it’s not easy.” She’ll have those natives on a reservation (projects) soon enough.
“I said, ‘You f—— niggers!’ and they just dispersed,” Ms. Smith recalled.
It’s the magic word.
It could be Zimbabwe or South Africa-America.
I wish her well.
200 to 300 calls to the police in 5 years?
Wanna bet one of the members of the police force just happened to mention something to the reporter about the phone call from last July?
I think she just locked up the police and black vote.
https://youtu.be/DM4-r4pN1PY
She should move to South Chicago and turn it into an oasis.
She’s probably a Democrat, and under the delusion that she owns them.
Gets a deal on a run down place and then wants to tell the whole hood what to do. F@#kin progressives. Snakes do what snakes do, they can’t help it. She will be lookin to sell out soon, I wager. buh-bye.
Just who decided she can’t call a nigger a nigger? The same one that decided that they cant call me a cracker. Big frigging deal, grow up thin skinned third graders. If you were playing high stakes poker would you call a spade a club. God damned crybabies. BS
her crime isn’t her word usage, it’s that she was stupid enough to buy into a crap neighborhood.
stupid progressive.
Must have been well-to-do niggers. Hennessy is pretty expensive.
It is the Hamptons after all.
Is she a democrat or republican?
Shame on her….