On Thursday, Thomas Lopez-Pierre—a City Council Candidate for Robert Jackson’s seat representing upper Manhattan—sent an, uhm, interesting e-mail to developer Brian Benjamin that was cc'd to a number of political figures. It quickly made the rounds thanks to its colorful language ("They Know That You Are A Weak, Little Short Man Who Sucks White/Jewish C*ck"). Yesterday, after publishing the email, we talked with Lopez-Pierre about the email and his ambitions, neither of which he is apologetic about in the least.

Here, let's just cut to the tape:

Can you confirm that email was by you? Yes, I did write it. And what I mean that I wrote it I don't mean that a campaign staff person wrote it and emailed it on my behalf. I wrote it.

Do you realize how it might be perceived by some of your potential constituents? No, what do you mean?

Some of the language might be deemed inappropriate by some of the constituents that you want to represent. I'm sure that's true. Other constituents would think that's just everyday conversation. So it's all relative. Keep in mind the Speaker of the House told the Vice President of the United States to "Go fuck himself." [Editor's note: For the record, the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, reportedly told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to go fuck himself. In 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney told Senator Patrick Leahy to go fuck himself. In Lopez-Pierre's defense, it's getting hard to keep track!]

There's a difference between saying "Go fuck yourself" and using language referring to Jewish cock and using the N-word. Specifically, language the City Council that you want to work for has explicitly said they frown upon. Who said?

Five years ago the City Council of New York had a symbolic resolution discouraging the use of the word in general. What word? Fuck?

The N-Word. Nigger. Ohhh that was something to do with comedians, right? So what. I don't care.

Okay but I'm just saying that the government body that you want to work for... And I'm ready to change the government party. I'm not there to join the club! When I tell you I don't care, I don't mean I don't care about your opinion. I didn't send it out of a fit of anger. I wrote it and then an hour later I sent it.

Well, that's impressive restraint. I can't ever hold back on e-mails that long. To be honest with you my daughter was crying and I had to put her to sleep. [Laughs] I have two little girls and if one can't sleep the other can't sleep, so you know.

You have no problem with it going public? Let me give you context to this. So [candidate] Mark Levine has a number of Afro-Americans and Latinos who are supporting him and I have no problem with that. I have a number of Jewish people who are supporting him. In fact, a number of Jewish people have contributed to my campaign. They think it's morally wrong for Mark Levine to run in this race when this place is obviously a Black and Latino community. They believe that what he's doing just furthers the negative tension between Blacks and Latinos and that it's morally wrong for him to do this. The Jewish community has a long history from the civil rights days of helping Afro-Americans and Latinos on progressive causes. What he should be doing is identifying—it doesn't have to be me—a young black and Latino to help raise money for and provide political guidance and help the community create its own organic leadership.

But I don't care who Mark Levine sleeps with, or who he's married to, he's not of this community. He's an outsider. Now that's not bad. I don't think Jewish people are bad. I don't think there are any good or any bad ethnic groups. I practice the politics of Dov Hikind, the assemblyman from Brooklyn. He is one of my political role models because he does not apologize. He's willing to put America behind the nation of Israel. He puts Israel first and he puts his constituents first. He'll endorse a Republican because, at that time, he believes it's in the best interest of his community and I respect that. That's the kind of political leader I want to be. My other political mentor is former Congressman Adam Clayton Powell. He was progressive but he was aggressive about protecting the interests of his community.

Our community is suffering from serious gentrification; people are losing their homes. The only reason this council seat is such a mess is because the Dominican portion of the district lost so much population that it had to come down further. And Congressman Rangel has lost half of its black population in the last 20 years all because of gentrification. So when I see someone like...what's his name?

Brian Benjamin? Brian Benjamin! I'm sorry, I forget because he's so not important. Brian Benjamin who—when I go to events downtown—he raises a lot of political money from black professionals. So when he goes downtown to events where he's raising money for Obama and other candidates and he speaks about this theme of black empowerment and that black professionals need to participate in the political profession by raising money and supporting candidates. So for him to use those same resources to elect a white, Jewish candidate who is not of our community and is not going to be politically beneficial to our community—and he's only doing it because he's a low-life real estate developer!

This is not about race, it's about class. Brian Benjamin is no different from the scumbag real estate developers who have been preying on Harlem.

And if you were elected how would you stop that? If I was elected I would demand more from institutions like Columbia University than the deals we got from them. I think elected officials sold out to Columbia University. I would demand more for affordable housing. For example, if I were a City Councilperson, and if we had a Democratic mayor, Frederick Douglas would not be all these co-ops and condos. All those abandoned buildings would have been affordable housing for the people. But instead, if you walk down 110th, 125th street on Frederick Douglas you'd swear to god you were on the Upper West Side. They've got a Starbucks, they've got this really chichi supermarket Best Yet. It's like nightlife but it's not for the community. The community doesn't get to eat and drink and dine there.

But since that's already happened, what would you do to move it in the direction you want it to go? I would work with other progressive elected officials to move forward on affordable housing. No more of this privatizing public housing and the projects. Instead of 80/20 we want 60/40 or 50/50. It's about political leadership. This isn't just about Mark Levine or Brian Benjamin. It's the fact that white Democrats have abandoned Blacks and Latinos. Three times in a row we've been fucked by white Democrats—and I hope you quote me on that! We have been fucked by white Democrats and we're going to be fucked again.

We were fucked with David Dinkins. They abandoned us and went to Rudy Giuliani. Then when Bill Thompson won the Democratic party they fucked us again and gave us a re-elected Bloomberg. I guarantee you now when Bill Thompson wins the Democratic primary the white Democrats are going to fuck us again and vote for whatever rich republican is running in 2013.