‘Buckwheat’ comment shakes up race in 51st

Terrebonne Parish NAACP President Jerome Boykin withdrew his support of state House Rep. Carla Dartez for re-election in the race for the 51st District seat and wants all of her supporters to do the same.

As of press time Monday, Boykin said he had no plans to endorse her opponent, Joe Harrison, a business owner from Napoleon-ville. However, the Terrebonne NAACP’s Executive Committee voted over the weekend to ask Dartez to step down from the legislature.

Boykin announced his endorsement withdrawal during Friday’s airing of his radio show on KBZE 105.9FM, citing a telephone conversation a day earlier between his mother and Dartez.

According to Boykin, his mother contacted him Thursday afternoon and said “she was 200 percent sure Carla ended their telephone conversation by saying, ‘Otay, Buckwheat.'”

“This was a slap in my mother’s face, and in my face, particularly in light of how hard we have been working on [Dartez’s] campaign for re-election,” Boykin said.

“My mother is still upset, she can’t sleep … My mother is in her 70s, and still fighting Civil Rights issues … so therefore, you can imagine that when she heard that, she was stunned,” he explained.

“I have no hidden agenda. I haven’t had a backdoor conversation with Mr. Harrison. This isn’t personal. What Ms. Dartez said is an issue. She might as well had called her a [racial slur],” Boykin said.

As president of Terrebonne’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Boykin said it is “my job to call light to issues such as this. I am asking all of her supporters not to vote for her.”

Dartez was invited to respond on Boykin’s radio show, but declined.

“I regret saying the statement but it didn’t really go like that,” she said later. “Mr. Boykin’s mother was excited in telling me about some of the things she had lined up for me. I got excited and responded with a statement that I normally say to other people, both black and white.”

“It’s a figure of speech that I picked up from the ’80s when Eddie Murphy made it popular on “Saturday Night Live.” I did not mean any harm by it,” Dartez said.

The incumbent argued that her voting record proves she is not a racist. “I would not be endorsed by the Louisiana Association of Educators and the American Federation of State and Municipal Employees (AFSME) if I was,” she said.

In response, Boykin clarified, “I never said Carla Dartez is a racist. What I’m saying is that Ms. Dartez, and anyone else, particularly public officials, have no business calling people racist names.”

Although Boykin is withdrawing his support of Dartez, he remains adamant that he will not endorse Harrison, the Republican candidate in the race. “There has been no back-door meeting with me and him. This is strictly about a racial slur that was used by a public official,” he explained.

Harrison is a former parish president of Assumption Parish. His endorsements most recently include the Political Action Committee of the National Federation of Independent Business, a small business advocacy group, and Save America’s Free Enterprise (SAFE).

“Joe Harrison understands the serious threats to free enterprise and will back the general interests of small-business owners in Baton Rouge,” NFIB Public Policy Director Gary Selvy said in a release Monday. “NFIB members know Joe can be counted on to promote and protect their right to own, operate and grow their businesses.”

Harrison is also endorsed by Louisiana U.S. Sen. David Vitter’s Political Action Committee, the Louisiana Committee for a Republican Majority (L.C.R.M.).

Harrison has run a relatively unmarred race. He briefly found himself the subject of controversy after the Louisiana State Ethics Board slapped him with a $200 fine for filing is paper work late. He apologized for the oversight during a segment of Boykin’s radio show last Friday.

During that broadcast, Harrison said he would support a minority judgeship in Houma.

Harrison is scheduled to do an in-depth interview on Boykin’s show Friday at noon. There is no word if Dartez will be invited to appear prior to the Nov. 17 election.