Politico describes the interaction:
On Tuesday night, during a discussion in which Buchanan and Sharpton debated whether Congress and Obama would extend the Bush tax cuts, Buchanan said: “And let me tell you, your boy, Barack Obama, caved in on it in 2010 and he’ll cave in on it again.”
Sharpton, appearing stunned, interjected: “My what? My president Barack Obama? What did you say?”
Buchanan replied: “He’s your boy in the ring, he’s your fighter.”
Sharpton then said: “He’s nobody’s boy. He’s your president and he’s our president. And that’s what you all have got to get through your head.”
Now Buchanan is all "no slur intended."
Using "boy" to describe the president of the United States when that president is black and then trying to claim it wasn't a slur would be a tough claim for anyone to make. "Boy" has a long history as a term applied to black men to deny them the dignity of adulthood, of full citizenship, of, when you get down to it, full personhood. Nor is this the first time a white Republican has used the word to apply to President Obama.
When the person who called the president "boy" was Pat f'ing Buchanan? There is exponentially more reason to assume that it was intended as a slur—or that it was uttered without thought or intention but demonstrates exactly how deep-seated Buchanan's casual racism is, that it would just slip out because that's how he thinks and he doesn't see anything wrong with it.
I say this with as little sense of apology as Buchanan offers when he claims he didn't intend a slur: Buchanan has earned the opposite of benefit of the doubt on any implication of racism. That's because of his long, long record of white supremacist ideas and pro-Hitlerism, among other things. Not to put too fine a point on it, Buchanan has earned the opposite of the benefit of the doubt on implications of racism because he has so many times demonstrated that he is a racist.
We've always wondered what it would take to have Buchanan's cot finally removed from the MSNBC green room. But it's become clear that this is the kind of commentary Phil Griffin genuinely wants on his network.