Think racism is dead in U.S. politics? (virgin, America)

[lilithu]

I've been waiting for someone to bring this up on RF and am surprised there's not been a peep. You guys are usually so on the ball with political events.

I mean wikipedia has already got an entry on it.

from wiki:
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Macaca (also written as macaque) is a dismissive epithet used by Francophone colonials in Africa for native populations of North and Subsaharan Africans.[1] It is also sometimes used as a code word in the White Power Movement, to refer to blacks and other non-Caucasians.[2] It is derived from the name of the genus comprised of the macaque primates.

Macaca and the George Allen Campaign Incident

The epithet gained wider attention as the result of an August 11, 2006, incident in the Virginia senate campaign in which Republican Senator George Allen, during a campaign event, specifically singled out a volunteer, S.R. Sidarth, with the opposition campaign of James H. Webb, because he was videotaping[10] the event as reconnaissance for the Webb campaign. Allen used the word twice to refer to Sidarth. While Sidarth is Virginia-born and raised, his heritage is Indian-American and the remarks ignited a controversy.


Immediately following his second description of Sidarth as "Macaca", Allen said, "Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia", highlighting Sidarth's race and national background. Allen has stated that he did not intend the remark as a slur, while his campaign suggested the word was a play on mohawk [11]. However, Sidarth said that his hairstyle was not a mohawk, but a mullet. Moreover, by Allen's own admission, his mother is a French colonial, born in Tunisia, who emigrated to the United States following World War II.[12]


Given the French penchant to use this epithet on people of color and given George Allen's mother's Tunisan French pedigree, it becomes almost impossible to ignore the fact that Allen knew exactly what the word meant when he used it. This then, begs the question that if indeed racial, then does Allen restrict its usage only to Indians or could this slur be used by him on other colored races in different circumstances. Arguably, Allen could use the same slight on all people of African and Asian heritage. There is a growing discussion in the African American community on this subject. Already aware of the "monkey" related slurs that African soccer players were recently subjected to in Europe, the community is asking whether this usage is now also going to become common in America thanks to the Francophile George Allen who apparently has imported the worse aspects of French behaviour into the Country.
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If you want to see the actual video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9G7gq7GQ71c

The article from the Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...081400589.html

I'll just say that I know that racism is still alive and kicking in the U.S. (look at Katrina), but I thought that we had at least gotten to the point where it had been driven underground - where politicians would not be able to get away with such remarks. But a lot of people are speculating that not only are they getting away with them, they're getting votes because of them.

[Djamila]

How anyone has the necessary... mental capacity... to vote for American politicians is beyond me. I wouldn't be able to stomach it.

[lilithu]

Originally Posted by Djamila

How anyone has the necessary... mental capacity... to vote for American politicians is beyond me. I wouldn't be able to stomach it.

Not all American politicians are like this guy, Djamila.

The scariest thing is that I think overt racism is starting to creep back into American politics. And if that's true it's because these people think it's safe to do so. Which means that it isn't just these politicians that are racists; it's the voters.

[MidnightBlue]

Originally Posted by lilithu

I'll just say that I know that racism is still alive and kicking in the U.S. (look at Katrina), but I thought that we had at least gotten to the point where it had been driven underground - where politicians would not be able to get away with such remarks. But a lot of people are speculating that not only are they getting away with them, they're getting votes because of them.

Anybody who thinks racism is dead in American politics should visit South Carolina. It's just more subtle than it used to be. You don't have Strom Thurmond saying "there’s not enough troops in the army to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the ****** race into our theaters and swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches" anymore, but you get Bush to visit Bob Jones University, and spread a few rumors about McCain's "black" daughter, and people get the message.

[Sunstone]

It interests me that Allen simply assumed Sidarth wasn't a native born American because of Sidarth's looks. Does Allen even know who he'd be representing if elected senator? Does he care?

[lilithu]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

It interests me that Allen simply assumed Sidarth wasn't a native born American because of Sidarth's looks. Does Allen even know who he'd be representing if elected senator? Does he care?

I've gotten that all my life, from both hostile people and friendly people.

Friendly person: Where are you from?
me: Oh I'm from California.
Friendly person: No, where are you from?

Hostile person: Why don't you go back to where you came from?!!

[Because_I_am]

ooh, I saw the video several weeks ago. It disgusted me.

I absoluety hate people like that, who think they can get away with things, with insults.

[Ody]

Allen's younger sister Jennifer Allen alleges in her memoir Fifth Quarter: The Scrimmage of a Football Coach's Daughter (Random House Publishing, 2000) that Allen attacked his younger siblings during his childhood. [31] She claims that Allen held her by her feet over Niagara Falls,[32] struck her boyfriend in the head with a pool cue,[33] threw his brother Bruce through a glass sliding door, tackled his brother Gregory, breaking his collarbone,[34] and dragged Jennifer upstairs by her hair. In the book, she wrote, "George hoped someday to become a dentist…George said he saw dentistry as a perfect profession—getting paid to make people suffer."[35]
Allen has disputed his sister's characterizations of their childhood. [36]

Allen has a long history of interest in the Confederate flag, in spite of his never having lived in the South until his transfer from UCLA to the University of Virginia as a sophomore in college.[38]
The May 8, 2006[39] and the May 15, 2006[40] issues of The New Republic reported extensively on Allen's long association with the Confederate flag. The magazine reported that "[a]ccording to his colleagues, classmates, and published reports, Allen has either displayed the [Confederate] flag – on himself, his car, inside his home – or expressed his enthusiastic approval of the emblem from approximately 1967 to 2000." Allen wore a Confederate flag pin for his high school senior class photo. In high school, college, and law school, Allen adorned his vehicle with a Confederate flag. In college he displayed a Confederate flag in his room. He displayed a Confederate flag in his family's living room until 1992. In 1993, Allen's first statewide TV campaign ad for governor included a Confederate flag. Greg Stevens, the political consultant who made the 1993 TV ad, confirmed that the ad included a Confederate flag.
Allen has confirmed that the pin in his high school yearbook was a Confederate flag. Allen has said "it is possible" that he had a Confederate flag on his car in high school.[41]
In 1993, he confirmed that he had long displayed the Confederate flag in his living room, saying that he owned the flag as part of a collection of undeclared scope. In August 2006, however, longtime political journalist Bob Gibson of the [Charlottesville] Daily Progress reported that "two former officials who visited Allen’s log cabin home at different times recall only up to two flags on display there, a Confederate flag and, on an opposite wall, an American flag."[42]

Way to go GOP.