Thursday, August 17, 2006

Campaign Slurs

A month ago, blogs and websites scolded Delaware’s Democratic Senator and presidential candidate Joe Biden for making racist remarks about Indians.

Apparently, Virginia’s Republican Senator George Allen, a possible presidential candidate, wasn’t paying attention.

On Monday, at a campaign rally in Virginia, Allen made derogatory comments to S.R. Sidarth, a 20-year-old college student of Indian decent and as a volunteer for James Webb, a Democrat running for senator against Allen.

“This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. He’s with my opponent… Let’s give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.”

As a Washington Post Editorial pointed out, these remarks are clearly offensive. Allen’s supporters were quick to say that he meant nothing by ‘macaca,’ which can “refer to a monkey that inhabits the Eastern Hemisphere,” and is also “considered a racial slur against African immigrants” in some European cultures, according to the Post.

The remarks may not hurt Senator Allen’s election this fall, but may come up again if he runs for president.

Posted by Swati Gauri Sharma at 10:54 AM

Print | E-mail | Permalink | Subscribe