Macaca: _____________
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaca):
"Macaca (also written as macaque) is a dismissive epithet used by Francophone colonials in Africa for native populations of North and Subsaharan Africans. It is derived from the name of the genus comprised of the macaque primates.
Macaca is also a code word used in the White Power Movement to refer to people of African descent." _____________
Excerpt from online transcript of 'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Wednesday March 29, 2006. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12079685/)
ALLEN: ... My mother came to this country after World War II, she came in legally.
MATTHEWS: Where did she come from.
ALLEN: Tunisia, North Africa. ____________
Also from the Wikipedia entry (though also widely documented by various reporting sources.):
"...Allen has stated that he did not intend the remark as a slur, while his campaign variously insisted the word was either a play on mohawk or a portmanteau word combining the words mohawk and caca to indicate shithead. However, Sidarth maintains that his hairstyle was not a mohawk, but a mullet hairstyle." ______________
My opinion is that the coincidence of having a Mother who comes from a place where this is a common term, used as a slur against blacks, makes it highly unlikely that Allen didn't know exactly what he was saying. He called a dark-skinned person a nigger (to be blunt) in public, documented on videotape. - The fact that he has changed his explanation and amended his apology, what, five times already, then settles on trying to blame the media... that clinches it for me. - Isn't that always the tried and true refuge for cowardly "Conservatives" who don't want to cop to responsibility for something they've done - blame the media? Well sorry, the "Evil Liberal Media" didn't call the guy a macaca, Allen did. He picked out the dark skinned person in the crowd and called him that, twice.
I have seen the general media picking up this story quite a bit this week. I hope it sticks. It seems pretty obvious to me that this was a racial slur, and Allen should be made to account for it. It might change some voters' minds about him, though I'm sure plenty of his redneck Virginia conservative supporters will be fine with him being proved a racist.
