HOUMA, La. (AP) — A white Louisiana lawmaker involved in a runoff election is apologizing for calling a black woman who had helped her campaign “Buckwheat.”
State Representative Carla Blanchard Dartez, a Democrat, admits she made an insensitive comment, and says she regrets her choice of words.
Buckwheat, a black child character in the “Little Rascals” comedies of the 1930s and '40s, is viewed as a racial stereotype.
Dartez acknowledges that she ended a conversation with Hazel Boykin by saying, “Talk to you later, Buckwheat.” Dartez was thanking Boykin for driving voters to the polls.
Boykin, a 75-year-old civil-rights veteran, says she considers the comment a racial slur, as she puts it, "just like the N-word."
Her son, the local NAACP president, says he plans to ask voters to cast ballots against Dartez in Saturday's runoff, and that if Dartez's Republican opponent wins, it's her responsibility.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)