Flashback: Robert Byrd Discusses ‘White N***ers’

SNOW: "Race relations?"
BYRD: "They're much, much better than they've ever been in my lifetime. I think we -- this is my personal opinion -- I think we talk about race too much.  I think there are -- I  think those problems are largely behind us. I think we can all profit by our mistakes. I think we've reached a new plateau and I think it's going to keep going upward. That understanding and race relations -- But I think, I just think we talk so much about it that I think we help create somewhat an illusion. I think we try to have goodwill. My own mom told me, 'Robert, you can't go to heaven if you hate anybody.' If we practice that. There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word. But we've all -- we just need work together to make our country a better land. And I'd just as soon quit talking about it so much."

SNOW: "Now, after our conversation Friday I went back to Senator Byrd and he said 'there's a term I used in our discussion relations that people may misconstrue.' And his office has put out a statement regarding that: 'I apologize for the characterizations I used on this program. The phrase dates back to my childhood and has no place in today's society. As for my language, I had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone of another race. In my attempt to articulate strongly held feelings, I may have offended people that I never intended to offend. Unfortunately there are people of every race who would rather attack others simply because of ill-conceived, false stereotypes based on skin color. People who do this are obstacles to positive race relations and become the stereotypes that they despise. But by working together and continually improving the understanding between the races, we can overcome these narrow-minded people and the obstacles that they represent.'"