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VA-SEN: "Macaca" -- The Movie!
If you're interested in seeing Senator George Allen (R) call a 20 year old of Indian descent "Macaca," as the James Webb (D) campaign is alleging he did, you can now see the video of Allen here.
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What's a "macaca"? Is that a shot at Sen. Akaka? Am I totally out of the loop here or does Allen has his own personal set of insulting names he uses?
August 14, 2006 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Washington Post piece has a very good explanation of the possible various meanings of "macaca" -- worth a read. If you click on the link it'll take you right there...
August 14, 2006 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a derivative of macaque, which is a type of monkey, apparently commonly addressed at Moroccans and other N. Africans.
Sen. Allen's people lamely said that it had something to do with a mohawk, which the South Asian staffer does not have.
Sen. Allen's use of the term may stem from some of the anti-evolutionary writings on intelligent design, as I believe Macaca is a genus name in the scientific nomenclature system, and it may be a bridge species that crowd is attempting to discredit.
August 14, 2006 9:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK... I happen to be in Florence and my neighbour in the Hotel I am staying in is French. Sen. Allen apparently speaks French... and according to other blogs, his mother is of French Tunisian decent. I told my Gallic neighbour about the whole controversy and he immediately recognized the word Macaca as a racial slur. He said it would be used against a 'foreigner or stranger' of colour... meaning "Savage, or primate". This fits in with the Senators other comments.
August 15, 2006 6:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
It is very obvious from watching the video that the term "macaca" was used as a degrading slur. Given Allen's predilection for Confederate flags and his antagonism for Martin Luther King, Jr., I think we have "Mel Gibson Redux". Does Allen have an alcohol problem?
August 15, 2006 8:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
The interesting part of this episode for me is the fact that. I'm not suprised. The GOP, for many Blacks is the party of the Dixiecrats and their offspring. Forget the "Party of Lincoln" hogwash. Those with a more recent sense of history remember Barry Goldwater's statement to the effect that civil rights could not be legislated but must come from (White) people's hearts.
Then there was Interior Secretary James Watt and his "Negroes and tight shoes" comments. Secretary of Interior Norton lamented the loss of the states rights issue bcause of that little civil rights thing. Trent Lott longed for the good old days with the original Strom Thurmond (can I use the term rapist?). Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour partied hardy in a parody skit while they humiliated a Black security guard and demeaned Blacks in general when he headed the RNC.
That great American President Ronald Reagan of casket world tour fame began his Presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi the site of the slaying of three civil rights workers amid complaints from civil rights groups.
Blacks in the party are viewed as being taken to the woodshed when the disagree with GOP policy (see Arthur Fletcher, J.C. Watts and Colin Powell). Other Black GOP officials are seen as willing to suppress the vote in their own ethnic group (see Ken Blackwell in Ohio) in order to survive in the party.
The George Allen macaca episode is just the latest and greatest in a long line of GOP slights to dark skinned people.
When GW told the NAACP convention that he knew the GOP wasn't trusted by most Blacks, he wasn't just whistling Dixie.
August 15, 2006 9:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
The list could go on for a very long time. But it is so ingrained that we almost let their racist crap pass instead of nailing it for what it is. At the time of Nixon's "southern strategy" he had a cabinet member (agriculture) Butz who had to be canned for making an offensive joke about blacks. let us not forget about Katrina and how Bush couldn't care less; how the right-wing slimers talked of how getting rid of blacks would clean up the town; how Barbara Bush indicated the people in the Astrodome wouldn't mind being homeless because they were miserable anyway. It is a pretty long, institutionalized list. The idea is to wink at racism so we all "understand" but not to get caught like the dope Allen. What a great specimen he is.
August 15, 2006 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink