HOUMA, La. (AP) – A Louisiana 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.” State Rep. Carla Blanchard Dartez, D-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. 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. 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. “I’ve never had no one talk to me that way and I considered it a racial slur,” said Hazel Boykin. “I know the meaning of it, it’s just like the N word.” The 75-year-old retiree said even when she was active in the civil rights movement in the racially charged atmosphere of the 1960s “I never got that kind of response.” On Monday, Jerome Boykin said he planned a news conference to ask voters to cast ballots against Dartez, who faces Republican Joe Harrison in Saturday’s runoff. “At this point, the NAACP is not concerned about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. If a Republican is elected because of her racist remarks, that’s her responsibility,” said Jerome Boykin. Dartez did not immediately return a call Monday. “I made an insensitive comment, and I regret my choice of words,” Dartez said in a statement reported by The (Houma) Courier newspaper. “I have apologized to both Hazel and Jerome Boykin. The Boykin family has been a huge help in my campaign for re-election, and I did not mean to offend them.” But Hazel Boykin disagreed and said Dartez still has not personally apologized to her. 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. Her remark is the latest bit of trouble for her and her husband, Lenny Dartez, who is a member of the Democratic Party’s State Central Committee. 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. Earlier this month, Lenny Dartez was indicted for allegedly harboring illegal aliens through his construction business.
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