When considering the implication of Bill Maher’s latest antics it is important to level set: Maher has over the years become the trusted media host for black left-wing intellectuals.

His roster of guests includes a who’s who of the black intelligentsia — luminaries from old stalwart Cornel West to MSNBC host Joy Reid and others have repeatedly returned to his show to advance their views. So given this history, it would seem surprising that Maher would so readily toss his friends under the bus by his casual use of the n-word on air.

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But if one really considers Maher and his history, a more complicated story emerges. Maher is a liberal prognosticator who exhibits a pretense of tolerance and open-mindedness — thereby giving him comedic license to offend.

Maher’s latest missive — responding to Sen. Ben Sasse’s (R-Neb.) exhortation to engage in grassroots “field” political organizing in Nebraska with the dismissive remark, “Senator, I’m a house n----r,” — is not surprising. But it was so out of context that it could not have been anything other than a strategically timed joke — one that unfortunately missed the mark.

Read in the context of Maher’s irreverent stance on many issues — it seems that the use of the n-word was meant to remind black liberal intellectuals to alert them to the fact they are the wholly owned property of the liberal elite. It was an open admission of something conservatives have noted all along — black intellectuals do not have an actual ownership stake of the liberal establishment, but in fact serve at the pleasure and whim of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

Maher, a 61-year-old white guy who has been employed by HBO for the past 14 years, apologized after his remark triggered an outcry.

Yet, this was probably not the first time Maher has used the “n-word” in the presence of African-Americans. Maher didn’t ask any black person for such license of course, yet he assumed it in the storied tradition of liberal arrogance and privilege of which he is a proud descendant.

It goes without saying that the n-word is a vulgar, disgusting term, with a history fraught with pain. As someone who grew up in the deep South at a time when many parents and relatives were openly and customarily called the “n-word” by whites, they know first-hand how hurtful it is.

The word is an obscene smear created for the specific purpose of putting black people in their place, relegating them to second-class citizenship and alerting the intended victim that he is less than human. I have personally never used the term and regard it as one of the most abhorred terms in the English language. I don’t like it when black entertainers use it, and I certainly don’t like it when whites use it either — no matter what their so-called liberal bona fides.

The reaction among black intellectuals to Maher’s verbal attack has been typically passive. They seem to have taken it on the chin and let him off the hook. No one has seriously demanded Maher’s resignation from HBO.

Can you image the reaction if a conservative host on Fox or any conservative media channel was caught using the n-word? The black community would be in total uproar, on the warpath, seeking retribution. And yet we’ve heard barely a peep from the black intellectual elite that polices conservatives’ speech like a mall cop on steroids.

The reason black intellectuals won’t challenge Maher – and the reason he still has a show – is because they have become the wholly-owned subsidiary of the liberal establishment.

Maher is smart. He calculates that he can get away with a lot more offense now that President Trump is in the White House. With a guy like Trump on the other side of the street, he reasons, where are black folks going to go?

Now that he has gotten away with it, Maher’s behavior, despite his tepid apology, is likely to get worse, not better. In the meantime, black intellectuals will undoubtedly accept these betrayals as so-called price of progress. They will lie to themselves and justify such open racism because at the end of the day they think it preferable to be on the Democratic plantation than to leave and have to face big, bad Trump on their own.

Williams is manager and sole owner of Howard Stirk Holdings I & II Broadcast Television Stations.

The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.