State Senator Elbert Guillory of Opelousas is running for Lieutenant Governor, and while his campaign budget is minimal, he’s been putting some slickly-produced 2-minute videos up on the internet. One of the most recent ones is raising eyebrows.
“The term ‘nigger’ is part of the American culture,” Guillory states in the video, titled “Let’s Talk About Race.”
Guillory, who is an African-American and a Republican, urges folks not to be shocked.
“Don’t be hypocrites. You have heard the ‘N’ word.”
Guillory used the “N” word in a previous video, utilizing an audio excerpt of former President Lyndon Baines Johnson. That video stated, basically, that the Democratic Party had been keeping African-Americans enslaved.
In his “Race” video, Guillory states there are other words that need to be confronted.
“Terms that we pretend that we don’t use – like ‘wop’, ‘kike’, ‘spic’, ‘raghead’, ‘slant’, ‘gook’.”
“These are stupid words that hurt people,” says Alfreda Tillman Bester, an attorney with the NAACP. “If you talk to average people, we’re talking about how we can work together to make Louisiana a better place to live.”
She believes Guillory is merely using the words to get attention, noting this video says nothing about Louisiana’s true problems, such as the way the state spends its money.
“We can’t find dollars to provide assistance to help people live, but we can find $300,000 an episode to provide to the people of ‘Duck Dynasty,’ who have made divisive comments of their own,” Bester points out.
“Duck Dynasty” has become a tourism draw for northeast Louisiana, and since the Lt. Governor oversees tourism in the state, Bester wonders why Guillory is avoiding talking about issues like that, and others that he might affect, if elected
“We should be demanding of candidates that they talk about how we can address these other issues,” Bester says.
On a side note, Guillory’s most recent campaign finance report shows him in the red by $3900, yet he is steadily posting new high-quality videos. The same report shows he paid Longshot Motion Pictures, LLC, in Houston, Texas, for his video productions. A bit of internet sleuthing reveals the company is owned by his son, also named Elbert Guillory.