A Colorado state representative referred to one of his colleagues as "Buckwheat" today.

[George II]

Reminder: Colorado is the same state from where Lauren Boebert comes. But too, the same state as one of our best Democratic Representatives, Joe Neguse - he keeps it rational, thankfully.

Wtf. A Colorado state representative referred to one of his colleagues as “Buckwheat” today.

Buckwheat is a racial slur derived from the 1920’s film Little Rascals.

Link to tweet

[Lovie777]

1. Racist feels bolden . ...

you're got the republican party of racists and RW news and sites and shithole supporting this and POC republicans supporting this.

And yet if you come back at them, they cry victim.

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2021/05/republican-lawmaker-calls-colleague-buckwheat-after-claiming-he-once-had-a-homosexual-black-friend/

[CatWoman]

3. LOL

Was his homosexual black friend named Buckwheat?

[Solly Mack]

6. That will probably be added to the next variation when he tells it.

[marble falls]

9. Good stuff.

[gratuitous]

4. Not enough room at the podium for the man AND his bigotry

Sit 'em both down.

[marble falls]

5. What a total jackass.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

7. Was that a black colleague? Seems like an important fact, if so ...

I really wouldn't care if someone called me buckwheat, me being white and all.

An African-American I'm sure would feel wildly different.

[Sneederbunk]

11. Agreed. Another story with incomplete facts.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

12. When I was a kid in the 70's (white) kids called each other that pretty regularly ...

Usually it was in the context of some kind of pissing contest.

Like "You think you can take me, buckwheat?"

Nobody thought of it like that you're calling effectively calling the person a racial slur, more like 'you're a just a kid, small, not tough'.

I think there might've been a popular movie around that time where some macho character called someone that in that sort of context, and it caught on with the kids.

[Demsrule86]

14. That is a racist comment period. It always was even when your friends used it.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

15. So even though the 10 year old using it had no idea who the Little Rascals character

Buckwheat was, nor therefore knew that he was black, nor therefore knew that his role employed a lot of offensive black stereotypes ... it was a racist comment, period.

Gotcha.

Honestly, I'm glad there's someone all-knowing who can clue me in on these things

[tonedevil]

17. Yes it was, period. /nt

[Demsrule86]

18. I will ignore your offensive baiting and suggest you watch the video...a white man at the

lectern called the Black woman wielding the gavel Buckwheat. As for your fond memories of some calling people buckwheat because they were weak and small...I would suggest that reruns of the Little Rascal shows were on television during the entire time. Thus it is difficult for me to believe that most did know it was about the supposed weakness and cowardice of a black character and a racist meme.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

22. My point is not that what he did was remotely okay, in fact what I'm saying

Is that he sounds like a 10 year from the racially unenlightened 1970's.

NOT acceptable in 2021, or for a long time before that.

I knew a lot of other kids back then who really watched basically nothing but cartoons. They didn't do Stooges and they surely did not do the ancient, black and white Little Rascals.

Like I said, if memory serves they were copying some line from a current movie or show that was popular around then.

It is unequivocally racist and unacceptable as of now, for a white person to call a black person 'Buckwheat'.

It is not however the level of word like the N-word, where even uttering it is not allowed. Notice how we are both typing it.

IOW, as I started out with, the offensiveness of this action, to me, varies between 'kinda shitty' and 'horrifying', depending on who he said it to.

[Demsrule86]

25. I consider the "N" word and calling someone Buckwheat exactly the same...it gives you a glimpse

of their character or lack thereof.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

30. A White person calling an African American either one is pretty close to equally offensive

I will 100% stipulate on this.

But I wasn't sure who he said it to, because the OP omitted it.

The two words have an inherently different level of offensiveness, however, as evidence by the fact that we write the 'n-word' ... but we are okay with typing the word buckwheat.

A white dude calling another white dude buckwheat is ... less offensive in my esteem.

If you inherently feel it's irrelevant, then this is our disconnect.

Had the OP said 'to his black colleague', one little word ... this whole debate wouldn't have ever happened, and we'd have a bunch of our time back

[Demsrule86]

27. 'who he said it to'. Did you notice the Black woman wielding the gavel? That is who he

said it too.

[LanternWaste]

19. Sometimes, even the obvious must be explained.

"'I'm glad there's someone all-knowing who can clue me in on these things..."

Sometimes, even the obvious must be explained, as there are none so blind as those who allege not to see.

[Demsrule86]

24. That is great. Thanks.

[Demsrule86]

21. Those reruns were on TV during those year and lots of kids watched them...it wasn't like they

hadn't been seen since the '30s. And there was a TV series in 1955. Regardless of your memories, the fact is I am sure the man at the lectern who insulted the Black woman wielding the gavel knows perfectly well who Buckwheat was and the racist meaning of his words.

[Demsrule86]

16. I see you did not watch the video...the White man standing at the lectern called the

woman presiding over the hearing...wielding the gavel...'Buck Wheat'. She called him on it and recessed the hearing... the facts are perfectly clear if you watch the video.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

26. I explained my point above. I did not watch the video, I referring to the lack of info

in the OP.

Seems like this quite salient fact was omitted there.

A white man in 2021 calling an AA person is wholly fucking way out of line.

Totally unacceptable.

But little kids in the 1970's did use this term, calling each other that, and not really meaning it as a racial slur. Love ya Dems, but I really don't care if you believe me or not on this point.

I wasn't trying to say it's salient, I was just pointing it out as an interesting thing, an aside if you will.

[Demsrule86]

28. I believe you think it is true...I just don't think it is true. I believe some if not all knew

exactly what it meant back in the day. The OP is about a grown assed man calling the woman manning the gavel Buckwheat...do you think he doesn't know what it means? I doubt it very much.

[Sneederbunk]

31. He is addressing someone who can be heard but unseen in the chamber.

He is not addressing the person presiding.

[LanternWaste]

20. All stories lack an absolute measure of fact, in this case however, we do have the relevant info.

That being said, if you are yet unable to establish the glaringly obvious, that's on you and you alone.

[BGBD]

32. He was arguing with

Tom Sullivan , a white man who's son died in the Aurora Theater shooting. Impossible to tell from the video who he was talking to at that particular moment though.

[Demsrule86]

23. I suggest you watch the video. No it was not a Black colleague and, yes the Black woman whom he

referred to as Buckwheat felt differently than you might.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

29. I can't tell certainly the race of the person in the back of the room there, in the mask

From the still in the twitter in the OP, no.

Just kinda seems like it'd be mentioned that colleague was AA, for clarity.

It's a fairly important bit.

[BGBD]

33. Fairly sure that's

Adrienne Benavidez, speaker pro temp.

I believe she's Hispanic, but he definitely wasn't talking to her. He was talking someone off screen. Later in the video, Leslie Herod, who is black, came over in front of him as people left the dais.....but it's impossible to know if he was talking to her before or if she approached him after he said it. I've read she was trying to defuse the situation, not that he directed it at her but who knows? They cut the mic so you can't hear anything after a point either.

Nobody in the media seemed to catch who he was talking to, and I haven't seen any reps saying who it was either, but they likely know.

[Sneederbunk]

34. The presiding officer is Adrienne Benevidez.

She is not black as portrayed by some here making up their own facts

[jpak]

8. They don't even try to hide it anymore

Whack his peepee

Yup

[Permanut]

10. Richard Holtorf. n/t

[Grins]

13. Lemmee guess.

He’s a Republican.