Three cheers for Macaca!
Sen. George Allen is a Republican running for re-election in Virginia. Some say he might run for president. He likes "the real America." He doesn't hang with them movie moguls like his opponents. He is one of us.
He also might be a tinsy bit racist. Well, you can't have everything!
Allen was caught on tape last week singling out 20-year-old SR Sidarth at a rally. Sidarth, a campaign worker for Allen's opponent Jim Webb, was there to tape the speech.
Knowing a camera was pointed directly at him (Sidarth informed Allen's staff that he was there), Allen proceeded to call Sidarth "Macaca, or whatever his name is" and welcome him to America. Unfortunately, Macaca is a racial slur for people of African descent. Sidarth is Indian-American, but, you know, it's still pretty offensive.
I don't know if Allen knew that macaca is a slur. I agree with John Dickerson of Slate, who said the word "sounded like the fraternity TV-room appellation for 'funny-looking foreigner.'" But, you know, it's still pretty offensive.
Allen's staff, of course, is denying any wrong doing. Hilariously, they claim Allen was trying to say mohawk because of Sidarth's hairstyle. Except Sidarth clearly doesn't have a mohawk. Even if he did have a mohawk, do you really want to vote for a guy who would mangle the pronounciation so badly?
I'm pretty sure Allen won't be running for president anymore.
posted by Steve Hyden @ 10:56 AM
10 Comments:
mullet
mancala? with stones or beans?
Personally, I find "macaca" a better decision than the noose that the lovely Sen. Allen used to have so proudly displayed in his office. (Though it does sound like a version of "Would You Rather?" you'd hear Hill staffers playing during happy hour at the Hawk & Dove. I'd feel sorry for his communications director if, you know, he hadn't chosen to work for George Allen.) But, just like talking to some brown people who have a PAC makes this okay, his anti-lynching legislation wipes that out. I heart "the real America."
I was gonna mention the noose. And he's publicly showed admiration for the Confederacy before. Which is why it's so funny to hear him deny all of this and say, "This is so far from who I am that it tears my guts up."
A noose isn't racist. It is a sign of southern pride.
OUCH.
We are really scraping the bottom of the barrel today, folks... even I'm almost offended.
Macaca kind of sounds like a little kid word for poo, no?
Macaca kind of sounds like a little kid word for poo, no?
Ya know, I don't believe that southerners as a whole are more racist then northerners...they tend to just speak out about it more.
Good point, anonymous, on the north vs. south racism thing. Still, it's probably not a good idea to be racially insensitive WHEN A CAMERA IS POINTED DIRECTLY AT YOU. Confine that stuff to the porch when you're drinking mint julips with the other plantation owners.
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