Italian/Puerto Rican judge says he called Black defendant a racial slur because of his New York upbringing
Let's not make this New York's fault.
A Florida judge who called a Black defendant a racial slur said it was a slip of the tongue that was commonly used when he was growing up in his New York City neighborhood.
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A Florida judge who called a Black defendant a racial slur said it was a slip of the tongue that was commonly used when he was growing up in his New York City neighborhood. Nut Judge Stephen Millan might have to sit out on a 30-day suspension for using the offensive term, “moolie.”
According to Raw Story, Millan was in his chambers discussing a defendant’s case when he used the racial slur. The Miami-Dade judge then tried to explain that the word stems from his Sicilian, Italian roots and it was often thrown around with ease and he “used it intermittently” as a “youngster growing up in New York.”
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That doesn’t make it right, and now Millan is facing a 30-day suspension from the bench and $5,000 fine. He agreed to undergo racial sensitivity training.
Millan is of Italian and Puerto Rican descent. “Moolie” is a Sicilian slur that’s used to describe either Black people or people with dark complexions. The Sicilian slur literally translates as “eggplant,” according to court officials.
“It was not unusual for my friends and I to occasionally use slur words when referring to others, including our friends and ourselves,” he told investigators.
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Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission chairwoman Judge Kristina Marx chastised Millan for his insensitive use of the word.
“The use of racially derogatory and demeaning language to describe litigants, criminal defendants or members of the public, even behind closed doors or during off-the-record conversations, erodes public confidence in a fair and impartial judiciary,” she wrote in the commission’s report.
“The Commission is unswayed by Judge Millan’s testimony that he gained familiarity with the use of certain racial slurs during his youth.”
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