David Simon, creator of greatest-show-on-TV-everThe Wire, ran into some issues on social on Monday night after using the n-word in a controversial tweet.
Simon was poking fun at the fact that Donald Trump announced he was having "a town hall meeting on African-American concerns" hosted by noted not-black-person Sean Hannity, the Fox News commentator and Trump surrogate who can’t decide whether he’s a journalist.
Simon tweeted the following:
After the tweet was met with shock, he explained to what he called “hall monitors” that he used the n-word to “mock the misuse of a white Fox interlocutor to address black issues.”
Simon told folks on Twitter who expressed disapproval that he intentionally used the “inappropriate” language intentionally, as a “metaphor” for Trump’s inappropriate choice of Hannity to discuss racial issues.
Many people responding to the tweet thought that, metaphor or not, Simon should not have used the word at all.
Simon continued to stick to his guns throughout many exchanges, which puzzled some.
Even some on Simon’s side worried that the very nature of Twitter would work against him and cause him to be misinterpreted.