Posted on 08/22/2006 5:44:40 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Republican Sen. George Allen, running for re-election in Virginia, can't wriggle out of this one with a Mel Gibson excuse.
The conservative lawmaker was cold sober when he deliberately insulted a young man of Indian descent with a racial slur. The man, S.R. Sidarth, was filming video of Allen's appearance at a public Republican rally in Breaks, Va., near the Kentucky border, as part of his work as a campaign volunteer for Allen's Democratic challenger, James Webb. Candidates of both parties commonly film their opponents' public appearances looking for gaffes and other campaign material.
Sidarth, 20, was apparently the only person of color in the small crowd.
This incident has especially dangerous implications for Allen's future political prospects because it revives his long history of racial insensitivity, which is unfortunate for a guy with presidential ambitions.
Allen, in the course of his remarks, singled out Sidarth and referred to him as "Macaca," adding that he welcomed him to America "and the real world of Virginia." The expression "macaca" was new to many of us, not a familiar word that trips easily from the tongue.
But it turns out the word is a common racist slur favored by French Tunisians; Allen's mother is of French Tunisian descent. The senator professed not to know what the word meant despite his mother's background.
Few people are buying that, including Sidarth and Webb. The Democratic candidate, a former Navy secretary, said bluntly that he thinks Allen "knew what he was saying."
Sidarth was even harsher. "He was doing it because he could and I was the only person of color there and it was useful for him in inciting his audience," he said. Indeed, the audience laughed at Allen's crude sally.
The Allen campaign, trying to stomp out the furor, explained defensively that the candidate had merely mangled the word Mohawk, a nickname he said his staff had given Sidarth to reflect the shaved sides of his unusual haircut.
Coiffure experts, however, said that excuse didn't work either. His haircut is a molette, a modified mohawk, but not properly defined as one.
To make matters worse for Allen's defense, Sidarth isn't a foreigner who needs to be introduced to Virginia. He grew up in Fairfax County and attended schools there and the University of Virginia. His father is a big Democratic contributor.
Ironically, it is Allen who did not spend his youth in Virginia. He was born in California, detoured to Chicago for eight years and moved back to California as a teenager, as the family followed his famous dad's football coaching career.
It was not until 1971, when his father was named to coach the Washington Redskins, that Allen became a genuine son of Virginia. But he had always been attracted to the notion of the Old Confederacy, driving around in high school in California with a Confederate-flag plate on the front of his car. He posed for his high school yearbook wearing a Confederate pin on his collar.
In his five years as senator, Allen has been a reliable part of the conservative Bush machine; party officials regard him as a logical presidential alternative if Sen. John McCain stumbles in 2008. Of course such a scenario assumes that he first wins re-election to the Senate.
But the sour GOP mood everywhere, even in Virginia, has made it necessary for Allen to concentrate on home base, skipping such early presidential sightings as the Iowa state fair, where several potential rivals were on display last week.
As governor of Virginia, Allen leaned heavily toward the old Strom Thurmond state's rights days. In his 1994 inaugural address as governor, he promised to "fight the beast of tyranny and oppression that our federal government has become." After his election, however, he took down the Confederate flag he had displayed in his living room, disingenuously saying it was merely part of a flag collection.
Allen semi-apologized for the "macaca" remark, saying he was sorry if the young Webb volunteer was offended. But he didn't say he was sorry he said it. There's a huge difference in the sincerity level involved here.
Consider how deliberately Allen used a word unfamiliar to most of us who do not have family roots in Tunisia. "This fellow over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca or whatever his name is, he's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere." Allen said. "Let's give a welcome to Macaca here."
The video clip shows Allen smiling and enjoying ridiculing the young man. It also shows a man unworthy of becoming president. He's just a bully.
There's no place for racism in the Party of Lincoln, civil rights, and the abolition of slavery--i.e. the Republican Party.
Racists can find plenty of room in the Democrat Party--the party of segregation, racism, slavery, bigotry, tyrrany, Jim Crow, and the Ku Klux Klan!
I'm on the recieving end sometimes as well... You may like some of these I found...
YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM NEW YORK CITY WHEN...
* You think Central Park is "nature."
* You're paying $1,200 for a studio the size of a walk-in closet and you think it's a "steal."
* You've been to New Jersey twice and got hopelessly lost both times.
* You pay more each month to park your car than most people in the U.S. pay in rent.
* You go to dinner at 9 and head out to the clubs when most Americans are heading to bed.
* You have 27 different menus next to your telephone.
* Going to Brooklyn is considered a "road trip."
* America west of the Hudson is still theoretical to you.
* You're suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you.
* You take a taxi to get to your health club to exercise.
* Your idea of personal space is no one actually standing on your toes.
* $50 worth of groceries fit in one paper bag.
* Your doorman is Russian, your grocer is Korean, your deli man is Israeli, your building super is Italian, your laundry guy is Chinese, your favorite bartender is Irish, your favorite diner owner is Greek, the watch seller on your corner is Senegalese, your last cabbie was Pakistani, your newsstand guy is Indian and your favorite falafel guy is Egyptian.
* You say "the city" and expect everyone to know that it means Manhattan.
* You secretly envy cabbies for their driving skills.
* You have never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.
* You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park at 3:30 on the Friday before a long weekend, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.
* Hookers and the homeless are invisible.
* The subway makes sense.
* The subway should never be called anything prissy, like the Metro.
* You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual.
* You think $7.00 to cross a bridge is a fair price.
* You've considered stabbing someone just for saying "The Big Apple."
* Your door has more than three locks.
* You go to a hockey game for the fighting. In the stands. To participate.
* Your favorite movie has DeNiro in it.
* The most frequently used part of your car is the horn.
* You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.
* You call an 8' x 10' plot of patchy grass a yard. You complain about having to mow it.
* You are a skee-ball juggernaut.
* You consider Westchester "Upstate."
* You cried the day Mayor Ed Koch took over for Judge Wapner.
* You run when you see a flashing "Do Not Walk" sign at the intersection.
The press is claiming that it must be a racial slur because it is an insult in the Ladino dialect of his Sephardic jewish mother.
I am pointing out that the press is wrong as usual and that the word has no racial connotation in Ladino.
Allen says it was not a racial comment, and the word's own background shows that it is not a racial comment.
bingo.
LOL Those are so true it's scary!
My favorite has to be, "You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression" LOL!
These macaques have no fear of people and like to steal food from unsuspecting people, beg for food from people who are eating, follow pedestrians around, reach in their pockets to take shiny things like coins that appeal to them, and generally make themselves a nuisance.
Calling someone a "macaca" in Ladino is about as racially charged as calling someone a "pitbull" - the epithet applies to a perceived behavior in an individual, and not to their race.
That is me to a tee. Plus I do have 20 menus next to my phone. LOL Pizza mostly. My favorite food.
I call my cats "little monkey boys" when they are troublesome and pesky, which is often.
Did you see that the wikipedia definition of macaca as a slur only dates from 17Aug06?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaca_%28slur%29
Hit the history tab and select [earliest].
> he can apparently use French <
In other words:
John Forbes Kahn/Kerry speaks French --> Good! Shows he's a worldly sophisticate.
George Felix Allen speaks French --> Bad! Shows he's a redneck.
how he thinks he used it is the most relevant thing there is. his campaign has said it was a mix up of mohawk and caca. now, that has been going on for a few days. You think Allen wouldn't correct that if it were wrong?
check your mail...
Good heavens Mrs. Meade. Remember yourself.
Incorrect.
The media has claimed it is a slur based on etymology. The true etymology of the word shows that it is not a racial slur.
99.9999% of Americans have never heard the word "macaca" it has no meaning for them and as far as they are concerned it is a nonsense word, not a slur. It could well be a slip of the tongue for "mohawk" or something on Allen's part - it could also be Allen unconsciously using a word that his mother used to use that he never realized was a real word.
It only becomes a slur in the public mind when the press succeeds in convincing people that it is a real word and a slur at that.
What that has to do with the use of the Ladino word "macaca" in the Ladino language remains a mystery.
Allen did not say "macaque."
Had he intended to use Mohawk, but garbled it, why does he think being called a Mohawk is derogatory, unless he takes a dim and lesser view of Mohawks?
I'm having trouble understanding how you find it easy to believe that he "slipped" and said macaca when he meant mohawk (twice), but impossible to think that he pronounced a word that is spelled macaque as "makakka". Which is closer?
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