Elizabeth Warren’s Crypto Challenger Repeatedly Used The N-Word In His Book

John Deaton, a Republican cryptocurrency attorney who announced he was challenging Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday, repeatedly used a racial slur in a memoir published last fall while recounting his impoverished Detroit upbringing.

The fifth chapter of his book, “Food Stamp Warrior,” features repeated uncensored uses of the N-word, as Deaton — who is white — recounts using it as a middle schooler, and directing it at a Black teacher. He also describes a moment when a Black man called him a “little white n***a.” At no point does Deaton use asterisks or otherwise censor the word. He also writes he would never say the word today.

A spokesman for Deaton, who moved from Rhode Island to Massachusetts earlier this month in order to challenge Warren, said the book — which is often harrowing, including recounting a man raping Deaton and an incident where Deaton may or may not have shot a man — was meant to be an uncensored look at his life, which began in poverty in the majority-black Detroit enclave of Highland Park.

“ John’s book is a raw and honest memoir detailing growing up in one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in America, overcoming the odds, and surviving,” said Jim Conroy, an adviser to Deaton. “As such, nothing is censored.”

Over the course of the 159-page book, Deaton writes the racial slur 16 times. Sometimes he is reflecting what Black people in his life said to each other, other times recounting moments when he himself uses the word.

At one point, he recounts a story where a middle school teacher refers to Deaton as a “smart-ass honky” and the teacher then dares Deaton to “say it back.” After the teacher tells Deaton to “sit [his] dumb white honky ass down,” Deaton uses the N-word in