SUTTONS BAY, Mich. – A northern Michigan county official was heard using a racial slur prior to a public meeting to describe African Americans in Detroit whom he blamed for spreading the coronavirus in the state. Road Commission Chair Bob Joyce told Eckerle that he couldn’t say that, to which Eckerle responded: “I can say anything I want. Black Lives Matter has everything to do with taking the country away from us.”Joyce later rebuked Eckerle a second time. “There’s just no room for that kind of language here,” Joyce told the Leelanau newspaper. "This type of racial slur is flat-out unacceptable and ignorant.