Maybe they’ve been watching reruns of old Rocky films or still reeling from the high of rushing into the Capitol on Jan. 6, but some Republicans are getting real reckless with their words, and one of the worst examples might be a Colorado state representative who referred to a colleague as “Buckwheat.”
While other news outlets will tell you that they don’t know who Rep. Richard Holtorf was referring to when he called a colleague Buckwheat, I assure you that Holtorf was talking to someone Black.
First, white people don’t call other white people “Buckwheat.”
Secondly, Holtorf has a history of saying wildly insensitive shit to his colleagues. In fact, after calling someone Buckwheat—surely that someone was Black—Democratic Rep. Tom Sullivan, who is also white, jumped down Holtorf’s throat for the comment, but that might’ve been residual anger for Holtorf who had previously told Sullivan to get over the murder of his son in the Aurora movie theater shooting.
Thirdly, Holtorf is clearly an asshole.
But let’s get back to what actually happened Wednesday.
Holtorf had the floor and was commenting on an amendment to a proposed bill when someone off camera interrupted him.
“I’m getting there — don’t worry, Buckwheat, I’m getting there,” Holtorf said. As he tried to continue, realizing he’d fucked up, he tried to walk the comment back, Raw Story reports.
“That’s an endearing term, by the way,” he said.
So then get this. After gaslighting the entire room, several members began yelling at Holtorf, who did the thing that some people do after setting the room ablaze; yep, he played the victim.
“Why are you yelling at me?” Holtorf said to Sullivan repeatedly.
Democratic state Rep. Leslie Herod eventually stepped in to try to defuse the situation before the session was called into recess.
The entire session turned to trash and was immediately called into recess and just think, the whole dust up could’ve been avoided if Holtorf wasn’t such an asshole and a racist because clearly he was talking to someone Black. He had to be.
It wasn’t immediately clear who Holtorf was referring to as “Buckwheat.”