Andrew Adams and the AP reporting
Stray comment or slur on Utah's Capitol Hill?
A white state senator apologized Tuesday for making an offensive comment about black babies on the Senate floor earlier in the day.
It came during debate of Senate Bill 48, which deals with equalizing money for school construction. Draper Republican Howard Stephenson called it "the ugly baby bill." But West Jordan's Chris Buttars took it a step further.
"This baby is black, I'll tell you. This is a dark, ugly thing," Buttars said.
Less than 1 percent of Utah's population is black, and the state has no black legislators.
"I got a little carried away, and I made a comment that I think a lot of people could take as racist. I certainly did not mean that in any way, but it was wrong and could easily be taken in just that way," Buttars said on the Senate floor. "I apologize to anyone who took offense. ... I just got my mouth a little bit ahead of my brain here as far as trying to explain the way I felt. I ask for your forgiveness."
During the debate, the bill's sponsor, Senator Dan Eastman, a Republican from Bountiful, was likened to the Biblical ruler King Solomon on several occasions. In the Bible, Solomon settled a dispute among two women who claimed to be the mother of a baby by offering to split the baby in half.
Jeanetta Williams, president of the Salt Lake City branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, says she's appalled.
Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said Buttars had violated decorum, but now that Buttars had apologized, the issue is over.
Still, Valentine reminded senators to be careful about what they say on the Senate floor.
"Our comments mean a lot to people even if they're made inadvertently, even if they're made, sometimes we have fun and make them in jest even," Valentine said. "When we go on live, the whole world knows every comment that we make."
In recent weeks, lawmakers have made comments about the South that some have found offensive, including a jab about literacy in Arkansas.
On Jan. 31, Sen. Darin Peterson, R-Nephi, was being corrected by Valentine, who noted that a bill of Peterson's had a fiscal note, but no fiscal impact.
"Thank you for that. But you know, as they say in Arkansas, literacy ain't everything," Peterson said as several of his colleagues nervously laughed along.
Since then, angry Arkansans have been e-mailing Peterson about his comments.
Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, urged his colleagues to be mindful about what they say as the Legislature debates illegal immigration in the next two weeks.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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