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Wyoming lawmaker apologizes for tweet about Wyoming's first Black sheriff
Rep. Cyrus Western says he has since called newly appointed Albany County Sheriff Aaron Appelhans — a Black man — to apologize.
AWyoming legislator has apologized after posting a tweet with racist connotations about Wyoming’s first Black sheriff earlier this week.
Rep. Cyrus Western, R-Sheridan, said he has since called newly appointed Albany County Sheriff Aaron Appelhans — a Black man — to apologize after replying on Twitter to an article about Appelhans’ appointment with a GIF depicting actor Cleavon Little asking, “Where the white women at?” The clip is from the satirical Mel Brooks film “Blazing Saddles.”
Western, who deleted his tweet after an outpouring of criticism, said that it was intended to be a reference to the film and was not intended to disparage Appelhans. In the film, Little played protagonist Sheriff Bart, a former slave who challenges the racist sensibilities of an all-white town in a satirical lampooning of the racism often obscured by Hollywood’s depictions of the Old West.
“I’d like to issue a retraction,” Western wrote in a tweet Wednesday morning. “My remark about the new Albany Sheriff was dumb and uncalled for.”
