A Greeley businessman apologized this week for uttering a racially-tinged joke about Illinois Senator Barack Obama that fell flat during the National Western Stock Show's annual Citizen of the West banquet.
William R. Farr was pretending to read telegrams congratulating this year's award recipient, University of Colorado President Hank Brown, when he pulled out a piece of paper and said, "I have a telegram from the White House." Then he added, "They're going to have to change the name of that building if Obama's elected."
Witnesses said they could hear people gasp in the ballroom of the Adam's Mark Hotel. "I think it was uncalled for and atrocious," said U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, who was also in attendance. Afterward, Farr said he regretted making the remark and apologized to anyone offended. "I mistook it to be humorous, but it was something I shouldn't have said."
This was not the first time the National Western Stock Show has been a center of controversy for offensive remarks. In 1997, a couple of other incidents of racially insensitive remarks spoken by Stock Show announcers outraged patrons. Between calf roping contests, a black rodeo clown, Leon Coffee, attempted to rope a calf without success. After an announcer pointed out that Coffee couldn't rope very well, rodeo clown Eddie Hatfield, who is white, responded by saying that Coffee knew everything about roping because his father and grandfather had died at the end of a rope. Since Leon Coffee wrote the scripted banter, he was not asked back the following year-- Eddie Hatfield essentially got off the hook.
In the same year, Rodeo announcer Hadley Barrett commented that a horse buyer had "jewed down" the price. He later apologized to the Jewish community and to the National Western Stock Show for his choice of words, promising to never use them again. Barrett's contracted was not renewed.
No comments:
Post a Comment