Woman Defends Use of Slur In Viral Video: ‘I Used That Word Because They Forced Me Into It’

In a video that went viral this week, a North Carolina woman used the racial slur known as the n-word while confronting a group of black women at a Bonefish Grill restaurant in the Raleigh area. Reached at her home by a local TV station, the woman refused to apologize and said she would use the word again.

Per WRAL, the incident took place during happy hour this week at the restaurant. The woman, 71-year-old Nancy Goodman, confronted the black women at their table, accusing them of being too loud. Amidst the confrontation, Goodman used the racial slur, while directing it at another customer, after also saying, “you’re so stupid.” As is often the case with such videos, multiple participants could be seen filming each other during the confrontation.

When confronted outside of her home by the TV station, Goodman attributed her behavior to her suffering from anxiety, as well as the behavior of the other women.

“I’m not gonna say I’m sorry to them,” Goodman said on camera. “Because they kept pushing at it.”

As for her use of the racial slur during the restaurant confrontation, she wasn’t apologizing for that, either.

“I used that word because they forced me into it,” she said. And when the reporter asked if she realized the word was offensive, she replied, “yes I do – that’s why I said it. I would say it again to them.”

She added that she regretted that she had not involved management.

The TV station also spoke with two of the women from the confrontation, including Chanda Stewart, the one who was called the slur, and Lekesha Shaw, the one who took the cell phone video.

A white woman in Raleigh, N.C. called a black woman the n-word & said she would do it again because she felt “forced” into using the racial slur bc she thought the black woman was being too loud at a restaurant. Good night y’all. https://t.co/e8JOQUelLX via @WRAL (h/t @WRALLena)

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) July 25, 2019

“I don’t care how you feel like we should have been acting,” Shaw said on the news broadcast. “If I was standing on the table with three heads, in a purple jumpsuit, nothing justifies you to come to my table and call me a stupid [n-word].”

Bloomin’ Brands, the parent company of Bonefish Grill, told the TV station in a statement that it does not tolerate hate speech, and that the company is reviewing the incident.

Per The News and Observer, the company has also reached out to Stewart following the confrontation, and Bonefish has a policy that anyone using racist language will be asked to leave the restaurant.

There was much online discussion of the story, with one Twitter user joking that Bonefish Grill “doesn’t have a racist bonefish in their body.”