Its been three years since the former CEO of Papa John’s was blasted for using the N-word.
John Schnatter appeared on OAN recently and said that he’s been working on removing the N-word from his vocabulary for the past 20 months. “We’ve had three goals for the last 20 months: To get rid of this N-word in my vocabulary and dictionary and everything else because it’s just not true,” said Schnatter.
The former Papa John’s CEO admitted that he didn’t understand the initial outrage. “It’s just unbelievable, I used to lay in bed and wonder how did they do this,” said the former chairman in regards to the company’s board.
Schnatter resigned in 2018 and blamed the media for conspiring against him. He said that Laundry Service tried to extort $6 million from Papa John’s to withhold the N-word information before ultimately exposing him.
“They tried to extort us and we held firm and they took what I said and ran to Forbes,” Schnatter told Louisville station WLKY. “Forbes printed it and it went viral.”
Laundry Service owner Casey Wasserman terminated the company’s contract with Papa John’s after learning that Schnatter allegedly said, “Colonel Sanders called blacks n—–s.” Additionally, he made remarks about his upbringing in Indiana and claimed that Black people were dragged from trucks until they died.
Fast forward to the present day, you can spot Shaquille O’neal in Papa John’s commercials and he also took a position as a board member.
“We are thrilled to partner with Shaquille and welcome him to the Papa John’s Board,” said Jeff Smith, Chairman of the Papa John’s Board of Directors. “Shaquille has an excellent entrepreneurial background, including as a restaurant franchise owner, and is a natural creative marketer.”