The calls for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's resignation are growing louder as some of Michigan's most powerful public officials described the mayor's use of the N-word during his recent State of the City speech as a new low.

In the Tuesday speech, Kilpatrick (D) said he is being called the racial pejorative more than ever since recently disclosed text messages indicated an affair between the mayor and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, as well as possible financial wrongdoing involving tens of millions of dollars. Kilpatrick also ripped City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr., who joined several council members in defying tradition by refusing to join the mayor onstage.

Kilpatrick, who is African American, defended his use of the word through his media relations staff, saying he wanted people to know the harshness of the letters, including "death threats," he has received.

But in a meeting on the morning after the speech, Detroit industrialist Dave Bing and two of Kilpatrick's most powerful business allies told him that his words had hurt Detroit and that he was losing credibility. A spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm (D) said the governor was "shocked" that the mayor used the word, which she condemns. Critics said the speech harkened back to the racial tension that defined Detroit and its suburbs during the mayoral administration of Coleman Young.

"Injecting race into this is setting the city back and setting the region back and setting the state back," said Mike Cox, the state's attorney general, who called on the mayor to resign.

The Rev. Horace Sheffield, pastor of New Galilee Missionary Baptist Church of Detroit, said others injected race into the situation, not the mayor. "Because of my support for the mayor, I get racist, threatening mail and phone calls to my church, so I can imagine that he gets them. I don't excuse what the mayor did, but I support him and I support the city."