Yep, racism is dead. I love how for some public officials, it’s as if the Id takes over or the censor in their brains that determines what is or isn’t asshattery just completely malfunctions. In what recesses of his depraved mind did Utah Republican (surprise!) State Sen. Chris Buttars pull this winner:
Republican Sen. Chris Buttars’ comment came during a debate on SB48, aimed at equalizing school construction funds. Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, called it “the ugly baby bill,” but, as Buttars stood to vote, went further. “This baby is black. It’s a dark, ugly thing,” he said.And drum roll please…the kind of asinine “apology” we’ve all become familiar with:Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said he perceived the statement as offensive and took the issue to Senate leaders. “I felt it needed to be addressed and needed to be addressed promptly,” he said.
Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, said he was surprised by the comment.
“I didn’t see it coming,” he said. “I didn’t take it as a racist remark, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was inappropriate and a breach of decorum.”
Buttars agreed and felt bad about it and asked for a chance to apologize, Valentine said. After senators returned from a 10-minute break, Valentine noted the “breach in decorum,” and gave Buttars the floor.
“I made a comment that I think a lot of people could take racist. I certainly did not mean that in any way but it was wrong and certainly could easily have been taken that way,” Buttars said. “I apologize to anyone who took offense. . . . I ask for your forgiveness.”What way did he mean it? Help us out here, Buttars.
And would it surprise you that Buttars is also the man behind a bill that would block Salt Lake City’s newly approved domestic partner registry?
More fun with Chris Buttars.
H/t, ZZFan.
39 Responses to “Utah State Senator compares bill he opposes to a black baby: calling it ‘a dark, ugly thing’”
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I find it difficult to believe that the sweet little towheaded stammering boy in South Park turned out so badly.
There’s probably only 10 Blacks in the whole state, but come on:
“I made a comment that I think a lot of people could take racist. I certainly did not mean that in any way but it was wrong and certainly could easily have been taken that way.”
He called Black babies ugly, but he didn’t mean it in a racist way. Okay…
Damnit! Norb beat me to the Leopold “Butters’ Stotch refernce
Buttars? This guy’s name is Buttars?
Oh, too easy. The mind just reels.
Even if he didn’t really mean “the baby is African-American,” it still shows that pervasive linguistic racism where “black” = “bad”, e.g., saying someone has a “black heart” to mean they are cruel, “black magic” being magic done for evil ends, and so on. “Black Sunday”, “black market,” “blackmail,” “blackball,” “blacklist,” a “black mark” on one’s record….
I know when I think “baby”, I think “babybackbabybackbabyback ribs”.
Maybe it was a horrific word association accident, where he was thinking baby -> babyback ribs-> barbecue -> charred -> black.
Makes perfect sense, and 100% not racist!
BUT SERIOUSLY
how the hell could that not be taken as racist? Maybe if he proceeded it with, “If I were a racist nutjob I would say things like…”
(to paraphrase Al Franken there.)
I don’t think he was trying to deliberately call black babies dark and ugly. It was, “This baby is [metaphor]” and his brain kicked up “black” as a metaphor for “bad.” If he’d said, “This baby sucks,” he would have been fine. But the lizard brain reached for “black” and it got past the filter.
It’s more an illustration of how pervasive the pairing of “black” and “bad” are in our culture than something specifically bad that he personally said about specific babies. Does that make sense?
Not only is it racist but it’s one of the strangest phrases I’ve ever heard. How did he come up with this?!
Mnemosyne- If he had said “this baby sucks”, I would have laughed out loud upon reading it, scaring the janitor.
Like I did just now when you typed it.
It wasn’t racist. However, it certainly was poor judgement to make a statement like that in our thin skinned ultra PC society. No surprise that he is a Republican in Utah. 75% of the state senate and house is GOP. Also, Republicans aren’t nearly so worried about political correctness as Democrats are.
The Racism Fairy gets around as much as the Strawfeminist.
The Dinesh D’Souza brain slug eating TODD’S brain aside, could one still say “tar baby” for a sticky situation?
Thank goodness for that mask, Amanda, or Disney would have a fild day with ya!
Sounds like Buttars would be perfect Veep material for McCain…
http://www.answers.com/topic/chris-buttars
McCain/Buttars ‘08! Pretty Puh-leeze!!
“It wasn’t racist. However, it certainly was poor judgement to make a statement like that in our thin skinned ultra PC society.”
…see, Chris Buttars is absolutely, positively, in no way shape or form a racist, or even a bigot of any kind.
It’s you Liberal Fascists who are the REAL racists, because you have thin (and dark) skin, and you’re always controlling what people say with your draconian “political correctness”.
You liberals should be treated just like we would treat the coloreds if we could get away with it…
[snark][/snark]
Jesus, TODD. A man describes a black baby as an ugly thing, and you really think that the problem here is an overabundance of political correctness?
I suppose Limbaugh’s cock has many heads.
(h/t Bill Hicks)
“Ultra PC” Strawmen abound as well
I erased “tar baby” from my vocabulary a long time ago, replacing it with “ball of glue.” Doesn’t make any difference that I never even made a racial association (much less intention) with that expression. Others do — so I don’t.
I think Mnem has it in one: His subconscious was digging for a metaphor that described something foul that could still be strangled in its crib, and instead of free-associating like a normal person would and spitting out ‘Voldemort’, he came up with ‘black baby’.
A man describes a black baby as an ugly thing
Where “black”, as pointed out, is a synonym for “bad”, having nothing to with race. Black heart, black soul, darkness, black mass. The colour black has been associated for a very long time with foul, corrupt, evil.
It was a stupid thing to say given how people would misinterpret it, much as it would be stupid for a politician in the US to use the word “niggardly” even though there’s no racial connotation.
I read it as Mnemosyne did: what’s implicitly racist is the use of “black” as an intensifier for “ugly,” but I think his association was more like black-hearted, black market, black arts; “Head like a hole/ Black as your soul/ I’d rather die/ Than give you control.” Black-evil, not black-African. (And that’s without even getting into the unfair, longstanding association between ugliness and just sheer badness.) That got merged together with the ugly-baby simile.
Still, an apology was in order because of the actuality of the statement, which did overtly call a bill “bad” by saying it was not just an ugly baby, but an ugly black baby. Even slips — and I think this was one — can still deserve harsh criticism.
Hey, Rush! Are you happy to see me or is that Medusa in your pants?
(BTW, many thanks to Beth for explaining how to blockquote…)
He didn’t say it was a “black document”. He called it a black baby. And you know, for a very long time, when you call a person black you’re referring to their perceived race.
I really just have a hard time imagining it was a slip just because the word black has a non-racial use. The man is just not that innocent of general bigotry overall. I have no problem believing that he has just as much problems with non-whites as he does with gays.
I missed Pam’s late link to the guy’s other political views, which I probably should have looked at before opining. It makes me waver a bit. But I still think it’s mostly a case of a trope of creation (bill as baby) colliding with a trope of badness-as-ugliness (bad bill as ugly baby), then colliding with tropes of evil (bad, evil bill as black, monstrous, ugly baby), to offensive effect — rather than a guy pondering, “How can I make this bill seem extra bad? Aha! By comparing it to a black baby! You’re a genius, Buttars!”
http://www.outsidethetent.us/wp/index.php?s=buttars
Here’s a blog documenting a fair amount on Buttars…
Sure sounds pretty motherfreakin’ racist to me. It’s always amazing to me that these dumb asses don’t even notice their own racism. I guess maybe its like someone who never bathes not noticing their own odor.
On second viewing this may be the best part:
Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, said he perceived the statement as offensive and took the issue to Senate leaders.
As one of five non-Republican Senators, and as far as I can tell the ONLY Senator of color–there is a House member whose surname is Chavez-Something, but he may be the only POC in the Utah state legislature–naturally it was his job to point out that his colleague was being a…what’s that word from Robert’s Rules again? A racist douche-noozle.
I’ve heard of an evil baby (Stewie Griffin). I have *never* heard “black baby” to mean evil baby. Nor black woman to mean evil woman, or black man to mean evil man. If he meant black *hearted* baby, why did he leave out the word that would make it make sense?
No, he’s a racist; and TODD is an ugly-minded white baby-man.
“If he meant black *hearted* baby, why did he leave out the word that would make it make sense?”
It could just have been a case of mixed metaphors. He started using ‘baby’, then he wanted to use ‘black’ but didn’t think to terminate the previous metaphor, and got ‘black baby.’
It’s stupid, but it happens.
This seems okay all on its own. No racial connotations at all. Just perfectly fine. But then:went waaaay over the acceptable line. He could have just left it as is. Or even “uglier than an ugly baby” or any other words that didn’t really bring up an image of a black baby.
I might be more charitable in my interpretation of it if we didn’t live in a society where some people still think it’s okay to ask pregnant black women if they’re carrying a monkey.
Of course he didn’t. Much like my coworker who, upon seeing a car accident, said, “You know how those people are.” The people standing around their cars? All black people. Of course, she “didn’t mean it that way”, after I reminded her that white people get into car accidents as well. But she wasn’t able to tell me just how she meant it.Clearly an argument for Hillary’s candidacy. She’s the only one in the campaign without a black baby.
Of course, the real problem with Buttars is that he has constituents that keep voting the white supremacist, misogynist, homophobic fuckwit to the legislature…
Then again, as Molly Ivins always reminded us, if we took all the crooks, idiots, and bigots out of our legislatures, they’d no longer be representative bodies.
I just had an epiphany about the image I think he was after, only to end up with the atrocious “black baby” line.
“This is an abortion of a bill,” I’m hearing him struggling to say. (Probably a word he might have a bit of a mental block on.) That’s why I think he was going for monster-baby, not African-American baby.
Still, again, what he said was offensive, without question, and he should take his lumps. I’m not trying to excuse it, just to speculate on how he may have come up with it.
What about Huckabee? (Unless he pulled a Strom Thurmond somewhere along the line…)Pam,
Clif at Outside the Tent has an entire category for Buttars- the dude is a classic that gives every single year. The Utah State Legislature has a very short session, so you look for your Buttars fix in January and February. Seriously, you kids have got to check out this guy’s greatest hits.
Studid word accident it possible — more likely if the guy has never acted or sounded racist before, but has a history of foot-in-mouth-disease. The question is, how much stupid is acceptable in some elected representative?
It could just have been a case of mixed metaphors.
When you live in the US and you hear hoofbeats outside your window, it COULD be stampeding zebras that escaped from a zoo. But it’s almost certainly a domestic animal like a horse.
Why are you pleading for us to believe it’s zebras?
More likely he lives in an area where such statements draw no interest. Utah is a very white state and aims to keep it so. And yes, black is a synonym for evil, at least in the Christianist middle of the country.
You may think what he said was an accident, and maybe it was. But this certainly isn’t.
(Lesbian woman speaking about not being able to visit partner in hospital, and how his counter to the proposed partner registry would make it worse.)