A Republican nominee for the Lt. Governor spot in Louisiana is under fire for using the N-word in a campaign ad that he claims will show black voters they are being played by the Democratic Party, reports The Advocate.
In the controversial ad, State Sen. Elbert Guillory uses an apocryphal quote from former President Lyndon Johnson, supposedly uttered after he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to Guillory, Johnson said he “gave ‘them’ a little something to keep the n****rs voting for Democrats for the next 200 years.”
Saying "this is education," Guillory claims the quote illustrates that the Democratic Party takes African-American votes for granted and that they should give the GOP a shot.
Guillory switched from the Democratic Party to the GOP in 2013, explaining that the Democrats are “the party of Jim Crow” and Republicans are the “the party of freedom and progress.”
His opponent, Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden (D), who is also black, called Guillory's use of the offensive word "divisive."
“He should be trying to educate people about coming together more instead of using language that puts a dividing line between us,” Holden said.
This is not the first time that Guillory has played fast and loose with history.
Earlier this year Guillory, attempted to make the case for teaching creationism side-by-side with evolution, claiming scientists once burned heretics at the stake for unconventional ideas.
The lawmaker was widely derided after fellow State Senator Jean-Paul J. Morrell (D) corrected Guillory, before adding a quote from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson who once said, "the good thing about science is that it’s true whether you believe in it or not,” as legislative observers laughed.
