DoubleSpeak with Matthew and Peter Slutsky

Blog Archives

Let’s Call Sen. George Allen What He Is

Senator George Allen (R-VA) is a racist. Trust me–I don’t want to use that word. I don’t want to accuse the junior Virginia Senator of being something that he is not.

However, based on my analysis of some recent comments that George Allen made to a 20-year old kid, I can now call a spade a spade, or in this case, a bigot a bigot.

Here is the video of Allen’s overt racism:

From this morning’s Washington Post:

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 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.”

Depending on how it is spelled, the word macaca could mean either a monkey that inhabits the Eastern Hemisphere or a town in South Africa. In some European cultures, macaca is also considered a racial slur against African immigrants, according to several Web sites that track ethnic slurs.

Now let’s remember that George Felix Allen’s mother is of Tunisian/Italian/French. So clearly Allen knows the racist connotations inherent in the word as Jeffrey Feldman took the time to document.

Macaca’ or ‘macaque’ is a nasty racial epithet alright. It is often used by American white supremacists to describe black people. In Belgium, it is a racial slur for ‘dirty arab.’ Could this be George Allen’s Mel Gibson moment?

What I hope to show in these results are instances where the word ‘macaca’ or ‘macaque’ are being used as an offensive racial slur on par with other more familiar racial slurs. This research is intended to clarify what exactly happened in the outburst by George Allen using sources commonly available to anyone with a computer.

This is a man who thinks he can be President of the United States???

I know people who work for the GOP and they think Allen is an empty suit. I always knew he was an empty suit, but now I believe he’s a racist. Senator Allen should apologize on his knees to that poor kid. With all of the problem’s America faces, the last thing we need is a bigoted Senator from Virginia.

Vote Jim Webb in November: He might not be an ex-football star, but at least he’s not a racist.

Aug 15, 2006 by Peter Slutsky in
Spread The Word: Digg this! | No Comments »

A LOTT of Chatter

As Senate Majority Leader Frist prepares to run for the Presidency, chatter has increased on Capitol Hill surrounding who will replace him if the Republicans manage to hold the majority in the Senate in 2006.

Former leader Trent Lott from Mississippi is looking like he could make a comeback to get his old job back. This, my friends, would not be good for America.

From The Hill:

The prospect of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) returning to leadership next year is creating more and more buzz on and off Capitol Hill, Republican insiders say.

The higher volume of talk has been fueled partly by his former aides who hold influential lobbying positions downtown, but prominent GOP insiders with no special allegiance to Lott say it extends well beyond his inner circle.

Perhaps by coincidence, Senate Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has recently sought a more public leadership role, appearing more often before television cameras set up outside the GOP conference’s Tuesday luncheons, and has otherwise made himself more available to the press.

If Lott were to return he would have to challenge one of several colleagues for a leadership post. At the end of last year, he said he could challenge McConnell’s bid to become majority leader, but he has since backed away from that threat.

Lott resigned his post in 2002 after some pretty inappropriate comments at Strom Thurmond’s 145th birthday party.

“I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either,” Lott said at last week’s party.”