50 Cent and Sherri Shepherd are among the celebs voicing their outrage over Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn’s use of the racist reference “tar baby” to President Barack Obama while discussing the president’s budget policies last Friday during a Denver radio interview:
“Even if some people say, well, the Republicans should have done this or they should have done that, they will hold the president responsible.”
“Now, I don’t want to even have to be associated with him. It’s like touching a tar baby and you get, you get it, you know… you are stuck and you are part of the problem now, and you can’t get away.”
50 Cent quickly hopped on Twitter to blast the congressman, calling him disrespectful and ignorant:
“Republican congressman Doug Lamborn should be relieved of his duties after calling president Obama a tar baby. Tar baby is a synonym for n*gger, except it is only used in bigoted manners, were as n*gga can be a sign of respect. The term comes from a children’s story in witch they explain that slaves were”dark and dumb”due to the fact they were” baptized in TAR” #SK. I can’t find a more disrespectful or ignorant way to describe the race or depiction of our president”
The congressman’s spokeswoman, Catherine Mortensen, has since issued an apology to the President:
“Lamborn was attempting to tell a radio audience last week that the president’s policies have created an economic quagmire for the nation and are responsible for the dismal economic conditions our country faces.”
“He regrets that he chose the phrase ‘tar baby,’ rather than the word ‘quagmire.’ The congressman is confident that the president will accept his heartfelt apology.”
The congressman also tried to clarify his intention with the remark, saying:
“What I intended was that it be a reference to the economic quagmire that we get trapped in when all out policies are falling apart and nothing seems to be working and whatever you try seems to be making the problem worse unless you build better policies. I was not aware of that, no, and I certainly had no intentions of offending anybody and hopefully the President will not be offended, if he’s even aware of this.”
And “The View” host Sherri Shepherd definitely wasn’t having it. She slammed the Congressman today, saying:
“We’ve been letting people slide….. How many times we gotta give you a pass? You knew when you said ‘tarbaby’, you knew exactly what it is. I’m tired of giving people a pass and then they do an apology and say I didn’t know. I’ve never heard a purist call Nixon, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, a tar baby. I don’t care. […] Everybody’s using these things for Barack Obama and I say, I think you know exactly what you’re saying and it’s so much in your heart, the racism, you can’t even help it. It freaking comes out!”
