A Minnesota House Candidate told voters that he wants their support and that he wants to be their “ni**er,” in a video released on Aug. 18., Newsweek reports.

Kyle Greene, who identifies as African-American and Cherokee Indian, is running for the states House of Representative seat in rural District 18A. He said he released the video to “unify as a society.”

“I’m not asking you to vote for me as your leader, I’m asking you to vote for me as your public servant,” Greene says in the video. “I want to be your state representative, I want to be your public servant and I want to be your ni**er.”

Greene, who’s running as an independent, told the Star Tribune that he used the N-word to people could pay attention to “real issues.”

“We need to unify as a society, and we need to stop dealing with trivial matters,” he said. “The word…is part of the American history, regardless of the race… It’s part of my history being African-American, white and Cherokee Indian.”