actually he said “colonels sanders said the n-word and never got in trouble for it”
But there’s no context to the statement.
It’s obvious they were discussing racial issues and impacts on the company and maybe he was just making a hyperbolic point about what he said (saying the NFL kneelers were hurting sales) compared to what colonel sanders said.
There’s stories out there saying they were roleplaying and he was supposed to act like he was defending racial epithets.
Regardless I don’t for a second believe what he said was racist or an inappropriate use of the word.
This was a lynching, pure and simple.
“Free speech”
If a dark skinned guy can call another dark skinned guy “a n!gger” or “my n!gga” or anything close to it, but it’s verboten for any light skinned people to use it, and the light skinned guy has to be fired, and sent to the reeducation camps.
It’s a word. Just like honky, cracka, cracker, etc. Someone calls me a name, I ignore it - cause my self worth is not derived by what someone else thinks of me.