Racist Obama Jokes Leaves Banquet Crowd Gasping

A Greeley businessman apologized Wednesday after a joke about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama fell flat during the National Western Stock Show's annual Citizen of the West banquet.

William R. Farr was pretending to read telegrams congratulating this year's award recipient, University of Colorado President Hank Brown, when he pulled out a piece of paper and said, "I have a telegram from the White House."

Then he added, "They're going to have to change the name of that building if Obama's elected."

Witnesses said they could hear people gasp in the ballroom of the Adam's Mark Hotel.

"I gasped," said Gov. Bill Ritter, who was sitting at the table with Farr.

Mayor John Hickenlooper said, "I don't think he (Farr) intended any mischief or malice, but it was inappropriate."

Keep reading.

Comments

[Pyrum]

12:35 AM on 01/21/2008

This article makes a mountain out of a molehill. It's nothing more than an Obama smear and proof Hillary Clinton is the chosen one for the democratic nomiation.

[liveandlearn]

06:09 PM on 01/20/2008

racism is as odious as sexism, and i hope america's people reject both.

[JMEB]

01:18 PM on 01/20/2008

That was not a racist joke. Period.

[TLV]

01:07 PM on 01/20/2008

The joke was very inappropriate. The reason? Because it had nothing whatsoever to do with the event or the award. It caught everyone off-guard because it came at a moment when everyone was expecting a real telegram from the White House to be read. The result - a shocked audience - was exactly what the deliverer, William Farr, wanted. You can be sure he only apologized under duress.

[DenverCurmudgeon]

12:22 PM on 01/20/2008

The Farr family has been prominent in Colorado for over a century. William Farr is a charactor right out of Citizen Kane.

[NeoLiberal]

10:16 AM on 01/20/2008

This is how conservatives will inject race and/or any bigotry into the campaign. Always couched in clever wiggle room.

Unfortunately, ducks are good wigglers, and the news media outlets are fed up with giving the conservatives any more of it.

These people are dividers, not uniters. Our nation is not the Divided States of America (or at least we hope not..).

[Damu]

09:50 AM on 01/20/2008

As a Black man I thought the joke was great. I intend to repeat it. White people who thought this joke was racist just don't get it.

[HippyLadyLib]

11:47 PM on 01/19/2008

Stephen Colbert doesn't see color - neither do I. Green men from Mars, black, yellow, white, beige, gender, I don't care. I want a leader who is smarter than I am, has common sense, logic and is a humanist; someone who can restore the US Constitution and when he/she swears to uphold it, will actually do it!! I want a leader who cares not about pandering to the Saudis and other nations who do not value human rights. Our current administration is everything I despise. I want change, and I don't care what color it comes in with my government leaders.
People should lighten up and watch more Colbert Report and Daily Show; and government officials should be more careful in their jokes leading up to their speeches. They should be smart enough to know that the media and pundits will put their own spin on everything that is said between now and 11/4/08. Man...that is a long time!
Color only matters in the paint I'm selecting for my living room; and I haven't made that decision yet.

[realitytrumpsbull]

11:09 PM on 01/19/2008

No accounting for taste...no accounting for the federal budget, either...what a bunch of clowns...laugh a minute....

[insanityfollows]

07:48 PM on 01/19/2008

What a dipwad. Time for the last of these creeps to go. Don't we need more people to fight in Iraq, by the way? Just asking...

[gurukalehuru]

02:40 PM on 01/19/2008

It was a bit of a racist joke, like the kind of joke that would have appealed to my Dad, i.e. not a bit of maliciousness in it.

The headline was extremely misleading, though.

[OPINIONATOR]

10:16 AM on 01/19/2008

"everyone gasped" - Oh for Pete's sake people really need to get a grip and get over these ludicrous overreactions. Goes to show how much of a stranglehold political correctness has on us all.

In speaking with ALOT of voters - what I have hear is the biggest turnoff for the average voter to NOT vote for Obama is that they don't want four years of being subjected to watching and listening to anyone who issues a disagreeing comment or criticism of Obama being immediately denounced as a "racist" by the MSM and Sharptonites. This offensive nonsense is already getting old and the campaign has just begun...................

[epictetus]

09:47 PM on 01/18/2008

I doubt that this was meant to be a racist joke. I think that it's a comment on how long the white house has been inhabited by white men. It's just not funny though, especially coming from a white man. It doesn't seem to demean black people in any way. He's guilty of very poor taste.

[IngeniousGirl]

09:21 PM on 01/18/2008

Colorado is very racist. Years ago as Chief Legal Officer with outside counsel in tow to attempt to settle a bizarre lawsuit where the hispanic plaintiff doctor filed lawsuit for wrongful termination and claimed the denver police department detective on the case had an affair with his wife thereafter and someone elicted a security guard to do a hit... I was in the room with attorneys from all powers to be... I was female, my outside counsel was visibly handicapped from birth. When plaintiff and his attorney left the room the 5 other men in the room immdiately began to say how do we "get this spic" etc. I quietly passed a note to my counsel, we exited briefly and I returned to the room minutes later. I announced that we would no longer participate in this lawsuit and perhaps they had forgotten that we were also "minorities" - needless to say all attempts to extract money for this case fell on my deaf ears. I have never seen such blatant discrimination in my entire life. These were attorneys and individuals employed by the police department. I have no doubt that the comments herein stating the comment was racist are true and correct in that such blatant comments made in my presence all those years ago were as if "accepted" and ingrained. I will never ever travel there again.

[whatsthatsound]

08:48 PM on 01/18/2008

This will make me sound like an elitist pig, but I'm for creating a "three and done" policy regarding remarks like that. If you step over the limit (becha ol' Billy-boy Farr is waaaay over the limit) you lose your right to vote. Otherwise, democracy gets held hostage to its lowest common denominator boobs like Billy-boy.