There’s “macaca” and then again there’s “macaca”
As a general rule, I try to cut public figures a little slack when they say a no-no. Anyone can commit a verbal blunder, even one that sounds bigoted. Not every off-the-cuff remark is a window to the soul.
But some can be and Tim Grieve at Salon is absolutely on target in arguing that in the case of the increasingly creepy appearing George Allen, the evidence of actual racial malice is growing at an alarming rate.
Are we making too much of “macaca”?
The case could be made — if George Allen weren’t the kind of guy who wore a Confederate flag on his shirt in high school, kept a Confederate flag in his living room at home and featured a Confederate flag, ever so subtly, in a campaign ad; if Allen hadn’t opposed the 1991 Civil Rights Act and a holiday commemorating the life of Martin Luther King Jr.; if Allen hadn’t hung a noose in his office; and if Allen hadn’t courted the modern-day equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan while serving as the governor of Virginia.
That last little window into what it means to be George Allen comes courtesy of the Nation, which has unearthed a 1996 photograph of the then governor posing with National Rifle Association spokesman Charlton Heston and a couple of the leaders of the Council of Conservative Citizens, which the magazine describes as “the successor organization to the segregationist White Citizens Council and among the largest white supremacist groups.”
George Allen used up all the slack he’s entitled to a long time ago. The man’s a disgrace. And he has no business in the United States Senate, let alone the White House.
August 31st, 2006 at 3:04 am
supremacist, supremacist ….
isn’t that simply another word for “Herrenmensch” or “Aryan”??
September 1st, 2006 at 12:14 am
Allen sounds like a piece of work. How do these people get into power? Nevertheless, the Repugs will probably stand behind him. Speaks volumes about their character, or lack of it.
September 1st, 2006 at 6:29 am
Everything I read about this clown and his “macaca” incident is alltogether too noncommital regarding the obvious etymology of the term, and how Allen came to use it. Some stories have reported that “macaca” is a common racial slur in parts of Europe - directed against people of North African descent and deriving from European colonists in North Africa. This seems feasible to me, although I would be interested in reading some more definitive information on the issue.
What does not get reported with any frequency at all is the fact that Allen’s mother was a Tunisian citizen of French decent who emmigrated to America. We all know what sweet and tolerant people those French colonialists were. “Macaca” may have been one of the senator’s first words as a child.
September 1st, 2006 at 7:38 am
Daily Kos has a letter written by a horrible white supremist named Earl Holt III, a friend of Allens. (Aug30 “more on Allen’s good racist friends”)
It is so filled with raw hatred that is it hard to read and believe.
Find it and read it, if you dare. It made me sick so don’t read it before dinner, or for at least a hour after.
September 1st, 2006 at 10:37 am
The real tragedy is that this insignificant piece of human refuse will probably get elected. Americans really need to stand up and say “NO MORE.” I was riding my bike around Denver earlier and noticed that the majority of people here don’t have any concern for any of their fellow Americans. Racism, homelessness, poverty and hatred have permeated our society to the point that nobody even notices the insane environment it creates. If we as Americans stood up and said “NO MORE” and each of us took actions to eliminate these problems in our society these problems would no longer exist period. No one person can fix the problems in America but as a whole we can, united we stand divided we fall.
September 3rd, 2006 at 5:51 am
In referencing alwayshope post–here is verbatum the letter she is describing:
Hey Commie:
Imagine my chagrin when I used a search engine to find commentary about myself, and there was your shallow, dilettante, asshole self, labeling me a “white supremacist.”
Being the shallow, nigger-loving dilettante that you are, you probably DO consider niggers to be your equal (who am I to question this?): Yet, unlike you and your allies, I have an I.Q. in excess of 130, which grants me the ability to objectively evaluate the Great American Nigro (Africanus Criminalis.)
The nigro is 11.5 % of the U.S. population, yet he commits in excess of 55% of all felonies (although felonies are UNDER-represented in the nigro community, where observing the law is considered “acting White!”) Moreover, he (or should I say she?)accounts for 48% of all ADC recipients in the U.S. We have spent over $7 TRILLION on “Urban Welfare Spending” since the mid-1960s, (black economists Thomas Sowell & Walter Williams) and the nigro is still as criminal, surly, lazy , violent and stupid as he/she ever was, while his illegitimacy rate is 80% nationwide, and over 90% in the “large urban areas.”
By the way, those of us who tried to end forced busing in St. Louis did so because it is a colossal waste and nothing more than a symbolic gesture that has seriously deprived every school district in Missouri that doesn’t benefit from a deseg program : It has cost the state of Missouri $3.5 BILLION since 1983, (another $3.5 Billion in Kansas City,) yet, the nigro “scholars” bussed to county schools under deseg “improve less academically than every other category of student in the St. Louis Public Schools,” according to the Federal Court- ordered Lissitz Study.
Also, you lying asshole, in the 2003-2004 school year, St. Louis spent $11,711 per nigger -idiot in the public schools, yet, half of all students test at the 20th percentile (or lower) on nationally-standardized tests. (If I were Emperor, I would forcibly hand over you and all your commie apologists for nigro under-achievement to White, working-class parents of public school students, and let them have their way with you…)
Some day, You sanctimonious nigger-lovers will either have to live amongst them (”nothing cures an enthusiasm for integration like a good dose of niggers”) or else defend yourselves against them. My guess is that you are such a cowardly and pusillanimous lot of girly-boys, they will kill fuck, kill and eat you just as they do young White males in every prison system in the U.S. That’s right: When defending this savage and brutish lot, you must also consider their natural ( or should I say UN-natural) enthusiasm for buggery!
I honestly pray to God that some nigger fucks, kills and eats you and everyone you claim to love!
Earl P. Holt III
4029 Shaw Blvd.
St. Louis, MO
63110-3621
P.S. I dare you to print this e-mail verbatim: You know as well as I do that most people know I speak the truth, and you are a liar and whore who takes to heart Lenin’s dictum that “The first duty of the propagandist is to subvert the meaning of words.”
It pretty much speaks for itself. However, to paraphrase a quote from Sen. Allen himself:
“You can tell a lot about a man by who he stands with”………Amen!