Leo Williams, the mayor of Durham, North Carolina, isn’t apologizing after facing backlash for referring to the city’s young people as “YNs,” a slang term which stands for “young n***as.” Williams, who is running for re-election, used the word when he was talking about gun violence during a town hall meeting.
“We’re dealing with some YNs out here just doing their own thing, stealing [guns] out of cars and they don’t know how to communicate,” Williams said during the meeting, according to The Raleigh News & Observer.
What is the public reaction to Leo Williams calling young people YNs?
Durham activist Paul Scott is among the people who are disappointed in Williams for the term he used.
“As someone who brags about being a former educator, you know the power of words,” Scott said in a Facebook video, per Yahoo! News. “You know that people would take you calling young Black men breaking into cars YNs, people would take that and run with it. Durham already gets bashed enough.”…