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An Alabama lawmaker faces calls to resign after using the N word in a Monday night council meeting.
Video of the meeting posted to the Tarrant, Alabama Facebook page shows City Council member John “Tommy” Bryant standing, pointing at a black councilor and asking, “Do we have a house N word here?” ? “
The inhabitants can be heard panting.
In one declaration after the meeting, Democrats in Alabama called for Bryant’s resignation.
“He is racist and unfit to serve,” the statement read.
“Alabama still has a long way to go when it comes to racing, but getting close to the KKK and using the N word should make you unfit to serve,” the statement continued. “These racists are in the history books with Bull Connor and George Wallace, not the taxpayer’s payroll.”
Waynette Bonham, a resident of Tarrant who was present at the meeting, also said Bryant should resign.
“It’s not what we need to represent ourselves in any capacity,” she told NBC News.
Bonham, who is black, said Bryant’s outburst was in response to his questioning as to why his wife had repeatedly used the word in Facebook posts.
Screenshots appear to show Nancy Bryant writing in the posts that Tarrant mayor Wayman Newton used the phrase “N-word house” when referring to a black council member. Although an expletive is not stated in the message, the N word is.
Bonham said that if Newton, who is Black, used the insult, it was in private.
“I can’t say whether he did it or not,” Bonham said. “However, two wrongs don’t do a good and the level of comfort the Bryants get in using the word so loosely is an issue.”
Bryant did not respond to NBC News requests for comment on Wednesday.
In an interview with NBC affiliate WVTM from Birmingham on Tuesday, Bryant maintained himself by using the word.
“I thought the city should know what kind of terminology the mayor is using, and I didn’t want him to get away with it so that’s why I made this comment,” said Bryant. “If I had dropped it and coated it in sugar, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”
Bryant also admitted to calling Newton, who is Tarrant’s first black mayor, a “little boy.”
When asked if he was racist, he replied: “What is the definition of the public, I could be racist but in the true meaning of the word racist absolutely not.”
In Monday’s meeting, Bryant also called the LGBTQ community “LGBT-whatever.”
He then called a Buddhist a Muslim, and went on to say that Muslims believe that “if you are not a Muslim their religion says they must kill you.”
Bonham said Bryant did not reflect Tarrant, a town about six miles north of Birmingham.
“We are not the Mayberry community that people are trying to make us believe,” said Bonham, who identifies as non-binary. “We’re not black and white. We’re a complete rainbow. And that’s just my street.”
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