In the unlikely event you haven’t heard, Virginia Sen. [tag]George Allen[/tag] (R), whose record on racial issues is already problematic, has come under fire for [tag]racist[/tag] comments he directed at a volunteer for Jim Webb (D).
At a campaign rally in southwest Virginia on Friday, Allen repeatedly called a volunteer for Democrat James Webb “[tag]macaca[/tag].” 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.”
How did Allen get from “[tag]Sidarth[/tag]” to “macaca”? The Allen campaign told reporters that campaign staffers began referring to Sidarth as “[tag]Mohawk[/tag],” and Allen misspoke in referring to the nickname. Asked what macaca means, Allen said, “I don’t know what it means.”
It may be the dumbest response to a racial controversy I’ve ever heard. First, “Mohawk” and “macaca” are hardly similar. Second, Sidarth doesn’t have a Mohawk.
And third, “macaca” is a racial slur, meant to describe a monkey, and Allen almost certainly knows exactly what it means.
Not only is macaque apparently a French slur used to describe North Africans, Allen would have good reason to know it is. His mother is French Tunisian (yeah, that’s in North Africa), and Allen speaks French.
In some ways, the video makes Allen’s remarks even uglier.
You’ll notice, for example, that Allen refers to Sidarth as “macaca” twice, suggesting the first reference was not just a slip of the tongue. Also, though you can’t see the audience in the video, the WaPo noted that Allen held up a minority “to public scorn in front of an all-white crowd” for a cheap laugh.
Allen, in other words, thought it’d be entertaining to demean a minority with an ugly slur, perhaps because he thought his audience would appreciate it. He told Sidarth, “Welcome to America,” as if the color of Sidarth’s skin necessarily made him an immigrant. (He’s not; unlike Allen, Sidarth was born in Virginia.)
If Allen had a sterling record on civil rights, perhaps he’d be given the benefit of the doubt. But he doesn’t — we’re talking about the same George Allen who revered the Confederate flag during his political career, opposed a state holiday honoring Martin Luther King, referred to the NAACP as an “extremist group,” issued a Confederate History Month proclamation, calling the Civil War “a four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights,” and kept a noose alongside a Confederate flag in his law office.
Late yesterday, Allen told the Post, in response to the Sidarth controversy, “I do apologize if he’s offended by that. That was no way the point.”
An apology was a necessary first step, but maybe now Allen can explain why his problems with [tag]race[/tag] keep coming up.