While delivering an impassioned speech decrying President Obama’s newly passed health care reform bill, GOP congressional hopeful Corey Poitier, 36, took a dramatic turn to the left and uttered the unthinkable: he called the nation’s first black president “Buckwheat,” in overwhelmingly mixed company.
“Listen up, Buckwheat — this is not how it is done!” Poitier blurted out, obviously in an attempt to win points with the mostly white audience. Does he not realize that in his onlooker’s eyes, his message was coming from one Buckwheat to another?
The comparison of the president to a 1920s “Our Gang” and “The Little Rascals” character that’s largely seen as demeaning and offensive by many African Americans has bolstered the otherwise-unknown Poitier’s notoriety but was it the right way to go about it?
No. It was a wanton display of ignorance in that he more than likely drove a nail in the coffin of any black support, GOP or not, and he also gave his rabid white fellow GOPers more fuel for the torches that will ultimately burn against him, a black man.
“The press has run amok with this, and turned me into a racist,” Poitier told reporters complaining of receiving no media attention prior to his irresponsible comments. He added, “I’ve never seen Buckwheat as a disparaging character. People love Buckwheat.”
Give me a break …
In another interview, the confused candidate stared down at his own hands to further demonstrate he meant no racial slight.
“This isn’t a spray tan,” Poitier said of his skin tone. “This is real.”
Poitier insists he meant no disrespect to Obama and has publicly apologized to both the president and residents of the congressional district for any misunderstanding. Meanwhile, dozens of angry e-mails and Facebook messages are pouring in.
“You’re an Uncle Tom, you’re an N-word,” Poitier said some of the e-mails say.
“I said, `I learned a lesson, that you have to watch everything you say, something you think might be harmless might be offensive to someone else,’ ” he concluded.
GOP doesn’t automatically equal racist, but at the rate things are going on the political front, the two terms are darned near neck and neck — including more and more of our own as offenders. Though of no apparent relation, Sydney probably lost his lunch behind this.
–gerald radford
