GOP Rep. Calls Obama Racist Name, Says He Didn’t Know

Colorado’s Republican representative Doug Lamborn recently called President Barack Obama a “tar baby,” which he later said he didn’t know was a racially derogative word for African-Americans. He later said what he really meant was “quagmire.” It’s like the time the Kansas politico said we should shoot immigrants from helicopters — or the time that the Alabama politician said we should deal with immigrants by doing anything short of shooting them.

Words matter, and when politicians break loose with this kind of violent rhetoric directed very pointedly at Latinos and African-Americans, calling it racism is pretty easy. Lamborn’s statement went something like this according to The Huffington Post:

Now, I don’t even want to have to be associated with him. It’s like touching a tar baby and you get it, you’re stuck, and you’re a part of the problem now and you can’t get away.

Taking into account the blatant disgust Lamborn seems to feel for the president, it’s safe to say this is a pretty racist statement — unless you live in his head. This is what The Root had to say about the whole affair:

The term “tar baby” has origins going back to an 1881 Uncle Remus story by writer Joel Chandler Harris and can be used to imply that a situation is difficult to solve. It has recently developed more derogatory connotations related to African Americans.

Lamborn, who has been called the most conservative member of Congress, was of course only familiar with the “difficult to solve” definition. And he’s already decided that the president will accept his apology, telling the Denver Post, “I am sure that he will not take offense and that he’ll be happy to accept my apology because he is a man of character.”

The country is in dire straits right now, we were barely able to pass the debt ceiling legislation to keep our economy on its wobbly track, and we’re not even out of this recession yet. Even as we ramp up to the 2012 election knowing that Latinos are going to be key voters across the country, the rhetoric used in politics is racist and derogatory.

But, I give The Root’s Jenée Desmond-Harris kudos for making an excellent point: given that Lamborn is one of the most conservative voting members of Congress, the words he uses to describe Obama are probably the least of the president’s problems.

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

[Image By E.W. Kemble]

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