Yesterday, Blue Hog Report published a text message exchange involving Kent Tester, a candidate for District Court Judge in Van Buren County. The gray boxes of text below are written by Tester.
The “hair lipped Niger whore” appears to be a reference to Van Buren County Clerk Pam Bradford (Bradford is white). Initially I wondered whether “Niger” was an autocorrect or typo for a racist slur, or for something else entirely. Based on Tester’s statements, it appears that it was indeed a racist slur (Tester says he was quoting someone else). Tester announced today that he was dropping out of the race.
The Van Buren County Democrat reported yesterday that Tester said that the text message exchange, which Tester said was between himself and his opponent in the race, current District Judge Susan Weaver, used the slur as part of an inside joke — a reference to a nasty comment that someone had made about Weaver in the past:
Tester told the Van Buren County Democrat this morning that the use of the racial slur he used in the text message to describe Van Buren County Clerk Pam Bradford was part of an inside joke between himself and Weaver in what he described as a friendly text conversation.
Tester explained that when Weaver was running against then-District Court Judge Amy Brazil, Brazil’s father, the late Bill Brazil, had used the slur against Weaver, Tester said.
Source: Arkansas Times | David Ramsey
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