The New N-Word

When speaking with Bruce Springsteen on their podcast this past week, Barack Obama made an observation about Bruce’s longtime saxophone player Clarence Clemons who happened to be black. He said, “most of your audiences were primarily white. And they can love Clarence when he’s on stage but if they ran into him in a bar…Suddenly the N-word comes out.” 

“Yeah,” Springsteen nodded in agreement, not having the courage to defend his loyal fans.

As a fan of Bruce and Clarence growing up, and spending my summers on the Jersey shore where both musicians would show up at local bars unannounced, and perform for free, I know from experience that Springsteen fans loved Clarence Clemons both on and off the stage; they would not think of calling Clarence the N-word.