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Buckwheat was a Black child character in the “Little Rascals” short films and “Our Gang” series in the 1930s and is widely considered to be a racial stereotype.
The owner of a conservative radio station in Tennessee is catching heat for referring to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre as “Buckwheat,” the Advocate reports.
Buckwheat was a Black child character in the “Little Rascals” short films and “Our Gang” series from the 1930s and is considered a racial stereotype. Eddie Murphy repeatedly satirized the character on “Saturday Night Live.”
During a recent segment on WKOM’s “3 Dudes with a View” program, host Delk Kennedy compared Jean-Pierre to Buckwheat during a discussion about “gender-affirming care” for minors.
“President Biden has come — both he and Buckwheat Jean-Pierre have come out and in favor of a national law, allowing minors without the consent of their parents to have gender changing procedures,” Kennedy stated to co-hosts Jim York and Clayton Harrison on the radio broadcast, according to the Advocate.
Biden, in fact, signed an executive order in June 2022 promising to fight for health equality and access for the LGBTQI+ community while expanding access to gender-affirming care for minors.
Kennedy also referred to Jean-Pierre as “Buckwheat” while discussing Biden’s handling of the Ukraine crisis.
Some of the station’s listeners found his commentary offensive and slammed Kennedy’s racist remarks. The hosts later mocked the critics amid the backlash.
“Apparently, you calling her Buckwheat just really set these white folks off,” one of the co-hosts told Kennedy, according to the Advocate.
Kennedy noted that the character Buckwheat was “intelligent” and “admirable,” so he was actually paying Jean-Pierre a “compliment,” he said on air.
“It is a compliment because the character Buckwheat if you go back and look at the old ‘Little Rascals’ movies, is an intelligent, admirable character,” Kennedy said.
“Buckwheat in ‘Little Rascals’ is not some stereotypical old song of the South Darkie. He is a very admirable, smart, capable person.”
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