Sen. George Allen apologizes for apparent “ethnic slur”
Read about the remark and all the drama surrounding it here:
RICHMOND, Aug. 14 — Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) apologized Monday for what his opponent’s campaign said were demeaning and insensitive comments the senator made to a 20-year-old volunteer of Indian descent.
At a campaign rally in southwest Virginia on Friday, Allen repeatedly called a volunteer for Democrat James Webb “macaca.” During the speech in Breaks, near the Kentucky border, Allen began by saying that he was “going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas” and then pointed at S.R. Sidarth in the crowd.
“This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. He’s with my opponent. He’s following us around everywhere. And it’s just great,” Allen said, as his supporters began to laugh. After saying that Webb was raising money in California with a “bunch of Hollywood movie moguls,” Allen said, “Let’s give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.” Allen then began talking about the “war on terror.”
Depending on how it is spelled, the word macaca could mean either a monkey that inhabits the Eastern Hemisphere or a town in South Africa. In some European cultures, macaca is also considered a racial slur against African immigrants, according to several Web sites that track ethnic slurs.
Outside the Beltway has the video of the incident.
I must confess I’d never heard of the word “Macaca” nor had any idea what it meant, but I do now. I guess.
Allen has apologized for uttering the ‘insenstive’ remark. Fine.
Now, what I’m waiting for are apologies from the following people for their truly insulting and insensitive racial remarks:
NAACP Chairman Julian Bond: “He [Bush] has selected nominees from the Taliban wing of American politics, appeased the wretched appetites of the extreme right wing and chosen Cabinet officials whose devotion to the Confederacy is nearly canine in its uncritical affection.” -as quoted by CNN’s Brian Nelson in an interview July 10, 2001
Rev. Jesse Jackson, media-proclaimed civil rights ‘activist’ and also founder and president of the RainbowPUSH Coalition: "There is a historical indifference to the pain of poor people, and black people … we seem to adjust more easily to black pain." As far as relief roles, Jackson wondered: "Why are there no African Americans in that circle? …. How can blacks be left out of the leadership and trapped into the suffering?" – Sept. 2, 2005
Randall Robinson, social justice advocate and author. He wrote the following at the Huffington Post: "Four days after the storm, thousands of blacks in New Orleans are dying like dogs. No-one has come to help them. I am a sixty-four year old African-American. New Orleans marks the end of the America I strove for. I am hopeless. I am sad. I am angry against my country for doing nothing when it mattered. This is what we have come to. This defining watershed moment in America’s racial history. For all the world to witness. For those who’ve been caused to listen for a lifetime to America’s ceaseless hollow bleats about democracy. For Christians, Jews and Muslims at home and abroad. For rich and poor. For African-American soldiers fighting in Iraq. For African-Americans inside the halls of officialdom and out. My hand shakes with anger as I write. I, the formerly un-jaundiced human rights advocate, have finally come to see my country for what it really is. A monstrous fraud. But what can I do but write about how I feel. How millions, black like me, must feel at this, the lowest moment in my country’s story." – Sept. 2, 2005
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-18th District, TX): "Watching family members and others cling to rooftops in Hurricane Katrina, I wonder whether or not the absence of attention [to the recovery effort] is attributable to the loss of a vote in 2000 and 2004." –Sept. 29, 2005
Representative Charlie Rangel (D-15th District, NY): "George Bush is our Bull Connor … if you’re black in this country, and you’re poor in this country, it’s not an inconvenience – it’s a death sentence … If there’s one thing that George Bush has done that we should never forget, it’s that for us and for our children, he has shattered the myth of white supremacy once and for all." –Sept. 22, 2005 – these comments, made a a Congressional Black Caucus townhall meeting were met with wild applause and cheering from those in attendance.
Rev. Al Sharpton, media-described black ‘activist’ and former contender for the Democratic presidential nomination: "I think that the statement clearly says that if there is a person that is a symbol that many blacks organize around and organize against in this generation, it would be Bush – as it was with one generation and Connor … Clearly Bush has become that, especially after Katrina," Rev. Sharpton said. "We’ve gone from fire hoses to levees." – Sept. 27, 2005
Representative Major Owens (D-11th District, NY): "Bull Connor didn’t even pretend that he cared about African-Americans. You have to give it to George Bush for being even more diabolical … With his faith-based initiatives, he made it appear that he cared about black Americans. Katrina has exposed that as a big lie … This is worse than Bull Connor." –Sept. 27, 2005
New York City Councilman Charles Barron: "I think that’s an insult to Connor … George Bush is worse, because he has more power and he’s more destructive to our people than Bull Connor will ever be … A KKK without power is not as bad as a George Bush with power … To be a racist in the richest, most powerful country in the world is lethal … Look what he’s doing to communities of color all over the world … He’s a lethal racist … What he did in New Orleans – I mean, that’s worse than what Bull Connor did in his entire career as a racist in the South. Look at these neighborhoods before Katrina hit. Bush made that community what it is. Katrina did the rest, in partnership with Bush, to deliver the final blow." – Sept. 27, 2005
And there are many more where those came from.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for apologies on any of them.