I got nothin' against mankind. It's people I can't stand.

The longtime chairman of the Rhode Island’s Roger Williams University board admitted Monday to using the N-word during a board meeting, saying it "kind of slipped out."

Ralph Papitto, 80, said he apologized, adding, "What else can I do? Kill myself?" Papitto, who stepped down earlier this month after nearly 40 years on the board, admitted he had used the racial slur at a May meeting of the school's board of trustees. He had been discussing the difficulty of finding blacks and other minorities to serve on the 16-member board. Barbara Roberts, then a board member, said Papitto became irate when he discussed pressures to make the board more diverse, at one point using the slur to refer to black candidates to the board.

Papitto, who has given the school at least $7 million and whose name is on the only law school in Rhode Island, said he had never used the term before. "The first time I heard it was on television or rap music or something," he said.