A longtime Latino School Committee member in Boston has resigned amid accusations that he used a racial slur to denigrate a prominent Latino radio show host, sparking an uproar in the community.
Ángel Amy Moreno resigned Oct. 25, nearly three weeks after he fired off an e-mail calling WBUR host José Massó "el negrito del batey," roughly translated as the "little black man in the yard."
The e-mail - apparently sent by accident to a wide group of people - was in response to an invitation to a Latino cultural event where Massó was to give a talk about history.
The episode revealed racial tensions among Latinos, sparked a debate about language, and deepened concern over the dearth of Latino leaders in city government. Only one Latino, Helen Dájer, remains on the seven-member School Committee.
The only Latino city councilor, Felix Arroyo, lost a reelection bid Tuesday.
Amy Moreno did not respond to telephone calls and an e-mail yesterday. He told the Boston-Bay State Banner that the phrase was a term of endearment and was not meant to offend. In some Latin American cultures, negrito is an affectionate nickname for people with dark features.
His resignation letter said he was leaving the School Committee "due to personal matters."
But Massó and others said Amy Moreno's e-mail was racist.
According to a copy of the e-mail provided to the Globe and interviews with three people who viewed it, Amy Moreno criticized Massó and others involved with the event, a coffee-house style gathering at a Jamaica Plain church where people could share stories and songs.
"I'm not going," Amy Moreno, who holds a doctorate in Spanish and Latin American history from Boston University and is a social science professor at Roxbury Community College, wrote in Spanish in the e-mail, which was sent accidentally to a list of invitees. "It's the same thing and there goes none other than the negrito del batey invested as historian."
Massó, who has a degree in education from Antioch College in Ohio and is the popular host of the public radio show "¡Con Salsa!" said he wrote a five-page letter to Amy Moreno after the e-mail landed in his inbox.
"I was shocked," Massó said yesterday. "It comes from someone that should know better."
Both men are of Puerto Rican descent, but Massó considers himself black, while Amy Moreno is light-skinned.
After the e-mail was widely circulated, Massó said, he received a letter of apology from Amy Moreno saying he meant it as a joke - which Massó called disingenuous.
"For someone who has a doctorate in history and not being able to put that into context is shameful," he said. "He's basically saying, 'Now this little black guy is going to be considered an educator?' "
The episode ignited a furor among people who questioned whether Amy Moreno should help preside over a school system that is 41 percent black and 35 percent Latino. He was appointed in 2000 and was nearing the end of his second four-year term.
Jaime Rodríguez, research coordinator for the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and who was coordinating the event where Massó was to speak, said it is true that people sometimes use the term negrito lightly, but "every day they use it less" because it is seen as insensitive.
"It was a lack of respect," Rodríguez said of Amy Moreno's e-mail. "It's right that he resigned, and that someone else with more vision should take that position."
Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who appoints the school committee, had no comment yesterday, his spokeswoman said.
Elizabeth Reilinger, school committee chairwoman, thanked Amy Moreno in an e-mail for his work and said the position would be filled through the routine nominating process.
Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.
