Advance\/SILive.com Instagram news post<\/a> about Borelli, the former City Council minority leader who left his South Shore seat in January 2025. The current New York City School Board member used the word \u201cr——d\u201d in a post to X on Sunday. <\/p>\n\u201cThis was the most r——d thing to happen during the Bad Bunny show,\u2019’ Borelli said, referencing Michigan Democratic Congressmember Shri Thanedar\u2019s post of two selfies in front of his TV screen with Bad Bunny performing in the background \u2014 not the Bad Bunny halftime show itself.<\/p>\n
The \u201cr\u201d word, once used as a medical term, is now broadly recognized as a slur used to describe people with intellectual disabilities and is no longer acceptable in respectful language. It is still offensively used to describe a foolish move that makes no sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was wrong for a member of the school board to use that word. It just was. No excuses. I apologize,\u201d Borelli said in a comment to the Advance\/SILive.com on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Comments reflect disgust<\/p>\n
But Instagram users were having none of that, and the most recent comments reflect disgust, anger and sarcasm directed at Borelli and the Republican party. <\/p>\n
Others expressed confusion over the prolonged dissension involving the Spanish-speaking performance at the Super Bowl and praised the halftime show as a celebration of culture.<\/p>\n
The comments<\/p>\n
\u201cFunny how I never use the R word on accident. It\u2019s just that easy when you\u2019re a decent human being,\u201d said Instagram user mrsrenegade.<\/p>\n
Another took aim at Staten Island Republicans: \u201cHold on … let me put my surprise face on. Oh noooo can\u2019t find it. A Staten Island republican said a slur soooo unlikely \ud83d\ude44\ud83d\ude44\ud83d\ude44,\u2019’ said user b_tale.<\/p>\n
\u201cShow his true colors,\u201d said hiddengems_mpr, while a user named suser top_askin said: \u201cHe\u2019s only apologized because he got caught slipping \ud83d\ude44\u201d<\/p>\n
Staten Islanders took a hit from user manusanz986: \u201cThis kind of attitude is, unfortunately, something commonly [see] from some Staten Islanders and people from the South, showing clear discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n
User axx.68 shared the sentiment with the posting: \u201cOfc he\u2019s from Staten Island\u201d.<\/p>\n
Borelli didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Why the fuss?<\/p>\n
A small number of commenters wanted to know what the fuss is all about, with a few questioning whether the word is even a slur. One joked that \u201crestarted,\u2019’ isn\u2019t really a slur at all.<\/p>\n
They also questioned all the ugly debate surrounding the Super Bowl Halftime Show, featuring the Spanish-speaking entertainer from Puerto Rico, noting that people should be above caring at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe people were that mad about the halftime show being in Spanish. If the music sounds good what does it matter?\u201d asked user tdonuts733. <\/p>\n
\u201c\ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02 Grown people having meltdowns over a 14 min halftime show \ud83d\ude02\ud83d\ude02,\u2019’ posted user samifigz.<\/p>\n
And mike160 said: \u201cThe halftime show was a celebration; of culture. You don\u2019t have to be Puerto Rican or know Spanish to appreciate it. No one would ask Andre Bocelli to sing in English.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Instagram users continue to slam former Staten Island City Councilmember Joseph Borelli despite his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-130411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}