A Maryland Democratic congressman running for US Senate has apologised for using a racist slur during a hearing on Capitol Hill.
Speaking during a House budget committee hearing, David Trone said: “So this Republican jigaboo that it’s the tax rate that’s stopping business investment, it’s just completely faulty by people who have never run a business. They’ve never been there. They don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.”
“Jigaboo” is a derogatory and offensive term for a Black person. The Oxford English Dictionary says the word is of unknown origin, its first documented use found in a song from 1909.
Trone apologized in a statement to the Washington Post. “While attempting to use the word ‘bugaboo’ in a hearing, I misspoke and mistakenly used a phrase that is offensive,” he said.
“Upon learning the meaning of the word I was deeply disappointed to have accidentally used it, and I apologise.”
Merriam-Webster defines “bugaboo” as “an imaginary object of fear”.
In 2009, the rapper Jay-Z discussed with the Guardian his use of the N-word in his music, saying: “If you eliminate [it, racists will] say ‘monkey’ or ‘jigaboo’.”
The word “jigaboo” has recently been an occasional source of controversy.
Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to whom Trone was speaking on Thursday, is Black. She declined to comment to the Post.
In Maryland, Trone leads Democratic polling regarding the party race to contest the US Senate seat now filled by the retiring Ben Cardin.
Trone’s closest competitor, Angela Alsobrooks, a state politician, is Black. She also declined to comment.
In early polling, Trone and Alsobrooks trail Larry Hogan, the probable Republican nominee for Senate, a moderate who was a popular governor until 2023, when he was succeeded by Wes Moore, a Democrat and the first Black governor of the mid-Atlantic state.
Trone said the word he used “has a long dark terrible history” and “should never be used any time, anywhere, in any conversation.
“I recognise that as a white man, I have privilege. And as an elected official, I have a responsibility for the words I use – especially in the heat of the moment. Regardless of what I meant to say, I shouldn’t have used that language.”
