A jarring tweet from the online magazine Slate asks "Is Utica, N.Y., a racist city? A huge number of people there search for the N-word on Google." The article reveals that in a recent survey of searches involving the offensive term, Utica had the second most in the nation.

The Slate.com article found that in terms of Google searches involving the racially charged epitaph used in jokes,

The data found the highest volume of such searches in nearly all of Appalachia, parts of the Deep South, and isolated other areas. Notably, the Utica, New York, region had the second-highest search volume, topped only by the Bluefield-Beckley-Oak Hill region of West Virginia. The study couldn’t say why Utica appeared to be so fond of racist jokes, but such statistical results point to potential problem spots in a way that interviewing people on the street might not.

The article questions the reliability of using Google search results. But questionable study or not, the findings of the survey are something no one wants to see associated with our city that has a much more renown reputation for opening our collective arms to refugees from around the world earning the monikers The Second Chance City and City with a Warm Heart.

The Mystery Memorial at Utica's Bagg's Square Park

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