A North Carolina county commissioner referred to slaves as “workers” during a discussion on removing a Confederate statue.

The Times-News of Burlington reports Alamance County Commissioner Tim Sutton made the comments during an unscheduled discussion on Monday regarding a Confederate statue in downtown Graham, the county seat. A group appeared before the board of commissioners to ask them to consider keeping the statue.

Sutton, who admitted he’s a chartered member of the Sons of the Confederacy, told the meeting “I am not going to be a victim of political correctness.” He was talking about his great-grandfather’s death when he said, “some guys on the farm, you can call them slaves if you want to, but I would just call them workers, that they raised a good bit of my family.”