An Ohio Democratic legislator used the term “buckwheat” in a Facebook comment to a black constituent Saturday. He says the term is not racist and that he’s been using it since he was a kid. (Does that make it all right?)
If “Buckwheat” is not a racist term, someone should tell the Duke Blue Devil mascot who, in 1988, wore a “Buckwheat” headband to the Duke-Notre Dame game. The headband was a dig at Notre Dame’s David Rivers, whose Afro hairstyle resembled the hairstyle used on Saturday Night Live by Eddie Murphey in sketches in which he played a grown-up Buckwheat from the old “Our Gang” comedies. (Remember “Unce, Tice, Fee Times a Mady” on the late-night TV album “Buckwheat Sings”?)
The mascot, Jeff Wilkinson at the time, did not mean it in any racial way, but he caught national hell for it. And he didn’t even claim to have used the term since childhood. In fact, upon reflection, he understood the reaction:
Clearly, the nickname was a reflection of Rivers’ afro hairstyle (if John Paxson came to Duke with a cowlick and the mascot wore a headband that said “Alfalfa”, would anybody have noticed?). But that doesn’t excuse my lack of awareness of the perception of the character. A roughly parallel example might be the Confederate Flag issue in South Carolina. Traditionalist claim that the flag stands for all good things of the Confederacy. Maybe, but the flag has huge racial overtones. This illustrates how two people can look at the same thing and see something completely different.
Unfortunately, Democratic State Rep. Hagan hasn’t had a similarly mature epiphany.
