George Allen is an idiot
This is a crazy story. I think everyone heard about Sen. George Allen calling his opponent’s cameraman, S.R. Sidarth, “macaca” at one of Sen. Allen’s fundraisers, and then telling the Indian-descended S.R. Sidarth, “Let’s give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.” Watch the video above and it’s pretty obvious that he is mocking the fact that S.R. isn’t a white American. What’s worse is that “macaque” is a french racial slur against North Africans. Why is that a big deal? Sen. Allen speaks French and his mother is from Tunisia. Macaca is also apparently common among American white supremacists. Sen. Allen claims that it was a reference to the nickname “Mohawk” that his staff had given S.R. Here is a picture of S.R. I don’t see how that qualifies as a mohawk. Apparently this is nothing new for Sen. Allen. Who used to fly a confederate flag in his home and had a noose in his office among other things.
And then today, Sen. Allen offers this apology:
“I’m concerned that my comments at Breaks Interstate Park on August 11th have been greatly misunderstood by members of the media.
“In singling out the Webb campaign’s cameraman, I was trying to make the point that Jim Webb had never been to that part of Virginia – and I encouraged him to bring the tape back to Jim and welcome him to the real world of Virginia and America, outside the Beltway, where he has rarely visited. I also made up a nickname for the cameraman, which was in no way intended to be racially derogatory. Any insinuations to the contrary are completely false.
“Yesterday, I apologized to anyone who may have offended by the misinterpretation of my remarks. That was certainly not my intent. On every stop on my Listening Tour – I have talked about one of my missions for this country – to make it a land of opportunity for all. I have worked very hard in the Senate to reach out to all Americans - regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity or gender. And I look forward to continuing to advocate this important mission for America’s future.
“I never want to embarrass or demean anyone and I apologize if my comments offended this young man (emphasis mine). Even though he has signed onto my opponent’s campaign, I look forward to seeing him on the trail ahead.
Daily Kos has already torn this apart so I won’t bother duplicating, but I highlighted my favorite part. How despicable a human being do you have to be to insult a person and then in your supposed apology blame them for it?
Also - Jon Swift (the second funniest Jon S. I know of) does some of his best work in explaining why this now makes George Allen the favorite in the ‘08 presidential election.
overblown dude..
I doubt he is “racist” but every liberal will bring this up every 5 seconds for the rest of his life
I don’t know if he is a racist or not. Even if he didn’t mean anything racist by macaca or Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia, it is still an incredibly idiotic thing to say for the very reason you mention. But like I said I wasn’t even going to say anything about it originally because I usually give the benefit of the doubt. It pushed me over the edge though when he implied that it was S.R.’s fault if he got offended. What kind of apology is that?
OK, maybe I didn’t say that in my original post, but I meant to.
i doubt he is “racist†but every liberal will bring this up every 5 seconds for the rest of his life
please. nobody of french tunisian descent (on him mom’s side) calls a dark-skinned person a “macaca” without knowing it’s a racial slur.
it’s like saying “oh i didn’t know ‘nigger’ was a bad word, i just made it up off the top of my head.”