Goodness gracious! As was pointed out above, Allen is a DIRECT DECENDENT OF AFRICA. His African heritage is equal to that of fellow first-generation son of an African immigrant, Barak Obama.

Trest

You must be joking. Senator Allen's mother was a FRENCH NATIONAL "living" in NORTH AFRICA, which is quite a different reality and history than an African (born and raised in - you guessed it - Africa and not Europe). Besides, North Africa is quite a different reality than sub-Saharan.

The level of discrimination heaped on the poor unsuspecting French in America has traditionally taken the form of boycotting wine and renaming "liberty fries" whereas acts of exclusion and persecution against black Africans from the sub-Saharan region has been slightly more, how shall I say?, visceral.

Also, no one in their right mind would consider Allen "black," so the slur (which in French North Africa is reserved for darker skinned people with sub-Saharan features who occupy a lower socio-economic status) is actually aimed at an ethnic group different from his own.

A more apt analogy with Barak Obama would be if he referred to, say, Indians living in East Africa in a derogatory manner.

Some time ago, I said this at a videogame competition, and my opponent - a black man with whom I was not personally acquainted - took offense. I understand exactly why he took offense; "monkey" is indeed a pejorative term for blacks, and it is in fact used that way, but that is not how I meant it.

However, it is next to impossible to convince someone that you didn't mean it the way he understood it.

As far as I'm concerned, racism is natural and normal, and if you're NOT racist you cannot possibly know much about the culture of other races. Since those cultures are different, you are naturally going to prefer some over others, and you will normally prefer those with which you are most familiar. Since you cannot possibly be intimately familiar with every culture, a lack of racism must by definition stem from a profound *ignorance* of how races and their cultures differ.

It's the excuses here that are silly, not the idea that he might have slurred a kid.

Did he not know the kids' name? Sounds like.... but that doesn't preclude him then making up a term to call him by and happening on a slur.

Is it really so impossible that he would say something stupid on camera? Are you KIDDING? People make gaffes and say stupid things on camera ALL THE TIME!!! If anything, it's easier to do it on camera because the pressure of performing makes your brain wig out.

Does the obscurity of the term and the fact that it took Webb's people time to realize what it meant help Allen? No: it HURTS him. It just highlights how coincidental that he happens to have just exactly the rare background that would know exactly what the term means.

Using an apparent racial slur against his opponent's operative actually shows how smart George Allen really is. ...

Allen's presidential ambition's were based on being a bit smarter George Bush, a good ol' boy who pretends he's from the South. This was pure dumbness on a Dubya scale. Combined with his questionable background on race issues - displaying a lynching noose and a Confederate flag in his office, this gaffe isn't going away.

Allen deserves to be criticized for this remark, which, even if it seeped up from his subconscious, was weighted with nasty overtones.

Goodness gracious! As was pointed out above, Allen is a DIRECT DECENDENT OF AFRICA. His African heritage is equal to that of fellow first-generation son of an African immigrant, Barak Obama.

Read the millionaire elitist Obama's book "Dreams From My Father" and you'll see him recounting numerous examples of him using the "n" epithet to describe people. I don't remember liberals calling Obama out when he wrote that book in the mid-1990s. In fact, they asked the guy to speak at their Convention!

This is double standard at its worse.

I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am.

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I really can’t believe that people who are otherwise apparently in full possession of their faculties can watch this video of Sen. George F. Allen and not see a racist. It is truly unbel...

Implying that Sen. George Allen a racist for this? At a campaign rally in southwest Virginia on Friday, Allen repeatedly called a volunteer for Democrat James Webb "macaca." During the speech in Breaks, near the Kentucky border, Allen began by...

As noted in an earlier update, "The only thing that makes any sense to me is that this was much in the same vein as Dick Armey’s infamous 'Barney fag' moment a few years ago, with his subconscious brain overriding his control in a free-flowing moment."

Anderson's alternate explanation, "Allen thought he was cleverly using a 'bad word' that no one would catch" is also plausible. Still, Greg's original point that it would make little sense to deliberately hurl racial slurs at the guy carrying your opponent's camera for the explicit purpose of catching you saying something you shouldn't have is a good one.

Isn't their just a touch of bigotry on your part when you say "it’s virtually inconceivable his audience did". I mean you are saying that they wouldn't get an obscure reference that would be understood in certain European cultures. Perhaps they all vacation in the south of France and would very much get it.

Or perhaps this whole things is a tempest in a teapot. Now which one of those two is most likely.

And, again, even if Allen new what “Macaca” meant (probable) and intentionally used it as a slur (highly unlikely)

How could he have known what the word meant and then not use it as a slur? I'm sorry, James, but the logic in that one just flew right over my head.

Kind of like saying "I know what nigg** means, but I certainly don't mean it as a slur when I call you one."

ou really are reaching on this one. It’s amazing. You are a huge critic of the dems, but when one of our own sticks his foot down his throat, you swerve off the road of sanity.

Whatever. You obviously don't understand the history of the Democratic party. The seat that Allen holds was once held by the DEMOCRAT Harry F. Byrd who was one of the biggest Jim Crow apologists in the country. He was also an anti-democracy machine boss who stole countless elections.

Allen was speaking off the cuff. His Democrat predecessor, however, actually AUTHORED the Southern Manifesto that basically said that Virginia should ignore the law and maintain segregation.

Allen's supposed "racism" is nothing compared to Byrd's.

Republicans continue to defend racial equality in the face of opposition. Think back to Pres. Bush's comments just a couple of years ago responding to critics--largely Democratic--of his foreign policy:

"There's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly...I believe that people whose skins aren't necessarily -- are a different color than white can self-govern."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040430-2.html

The Republicans are the party of Lincoln--Democrats upheld the legacy of racism for years.