Oklahoma Republican Apologizes for ‘Colored Babies’ Freudian Slip During Debate on Anti-Abortion Bill

Boooooy, some of these conservatives really need racism rehab. They should all stand up in a room full of supporters and say, “My name is Slurry McNegroEpithet, and I just can’t seem to stop saying the quiet part out loud when in mixed company,” to which the audience would reply, “Hi, Slurry,” and then the healing could begin.

An Oklahoma lawmaker apologized Tuesday for using a very well-known slur for Black people while on the House floor engaging in the Republican tradition of only pretending to care about Black and Hispanic babies when it suits their anti-abortion narrative. In keeping with tradition, the legislator offered no real apology; he didn’t apologize for being racist while using Black and brown babies as pawns in the game of eroding women’s reproductive rights like he had an Oppression Bingo scorecard he was trying to complete, but instead, he tried to excuse his use of the words “colored babies” as a simple “slip of the tongue.”

“It was a slip of the tongue that was not at all what I intended to say, nor who I am in my heart,” Rep. Brad Boles (R-Marlow) said in a statement, the Oklahoman reports. “I apologized immediately in a candid, productive conversation with several colleagues personally as well as made a public apology on the House floor.”

From the Oklahoman:

Boles made the comment while debating in favor of a “fetal heartbeat” bill that would outlaw abortions once “cardiac activity” is detected in a fetus, which can occur as early as six weeks into a woman’s pregnancy.

“In 2017, 862,000 babies were aborted. 28% of those babies were colored babies. 240,000 Black kids, 215,000 Hispanic kids. These kids mattered and I’m here to advocate for them as well,” Boles said, without citing his statistics.

I’d like to take a moment to point out the sheer degree of caucasity on display here.

Conservatives have no problem putting Latino children in cages, separating them from their families and carting them off to countries they either fled or had never even been to, and they’ll do it in a heartbeat (pun intended). They’ll also shout from a bullhorn Black-on-Black crime statistics they either made up or cited without context in an effort to discredit the very concept of Black Lives Matter while being indifferent to the racist adultification of Black children in America. They will vehemently oppose welfare and affordable healthcare needed disproportionately in Black and Hispanic communities, but all of that apathy goes out the window when it’s time to tell women what to do with their bodies.

Perhaps Boles should have followed the lead of former Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter who said he spent “the last 20 months” working to “get rid of this N-word in my vocabulary.” As fucked up as that is, it’s nice to see that somebody is sticking to their rehab program.

Instead, Boles insisted that his use of “colored babies” wasn’t the verbal equivalent of auto-correct defaulting to his most commonly used language. We’re supposed to believe that the antebellum just flew right out of him by “mistake” because he was “debating a passionate bill,” as he said on the House floor Tuesday.

The first step is admitting you have a problem, Boles, and that problem ain’t abortion.