Allegations surfaced late Friday that Donald Trump repeatedly jested with 'Celebrity Apprentice' producers by using a derogatory phrase for African-Americans to describe a costumed Lil Jon during filming for a 2013 episode.
On Saturday, the rapper took to Twitter to say the assertions were true, and that Trump finally stopped making the reference after he and other contestants confronted him about it.
For the episode, teams were tasked with creating a mobile display to promote a line of hair care products.
Lil Jon, 45, purchased a patriotic 'Uncle Sam' costume to help market the products.
An 'Apprentice' staffer told the Daily Beast that, when Trump heard about Lil Jon's gimmick, he joked off-camera a number of times that Jon, who is black, was 'Uncle Tom' (instead of 'Uncle Sam'), apparently unaware the slur was deemed racially offensive.
Another staffer, speaking to the outlet on condition of anonymity due to non-disclosure agreements, said producers repeatedly tried to warn Trump of the reference's insensitivity.
On Twitter, Lil Jon, whose real name is Jonathan Smith, wrote that he and "several castmates... addressed Trump when we heard the comment."
"I can't say if [Trump] knew what he was actually saying or not, but he did stop using the term once we explained it's (sic) offensiveness," Jon wrote.
The phrase 'Uncle Tom' refers to the chief protagonist in the 1852 anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin", written by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
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