Candidate Apologizes For ‘Buckwheat’ Remark

A state representative in a runoff election infuriated civil rights leaders after she ended a conversation with the mother of the NAACP’s local president by saying, “Talk to you later, Buckwheat.”

1

State Rep. Carla Blanchard Dartez, of Morgan City, acknowledged she made the remark during a Thursday night telephone conversation with Hazel Boykin to thank her for driving voters to the polls.

2

Buckwheat, a black child character in the “Little Rascals” comedies of the 1930s and ’40s, is viewed as a racial stereotype demeaning to black people.

3

Hazel Boykin’s son, Jerome, is the NAACP’s president in Terrebonne Parish. She is well-known as a 1960s civil rights activist, helping to desegregate restaurants and the parish school system.

4

Dartez has represented parts of Terrebonne, St. Mary and Assumption parishes since 1999. She has said she does not intend to drop out of the race.

5

“I made an insensitive comment when speaking with Hazel Boykin, and I have apologized to the Boykin family and publicly for my choice of words,” Dartez said in a statement. “I have a strong record of fighting for issues important to the African American community; in fact, I have a 93 percent voting record with the Black Caucus.”

6

But the “Buckwheat” remark is the latest bit of trouble for Dartez and her husband, Lenny, who is a member of the Democratic Party’s State Central Committee.

7… maybe but not quite.

Before qualifying in September, Carla Dartez was given a summons for improper lane usage after hitting a pedestrian with her vehicle. She failed a field sobriety test but passed a later Breathalyzer test.

8

Earlier this month, Lenny Dartez was indicted on charges of allegedly harboring illegal aliens through his construction business.

9.  Well, that’s the end of the story.  Paragraph 7 almost came close to naming the party of the racist.  But throughout the entire story you do not find out that Carla Dartez is a Democrat.

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