Tuesday, September 12, 2006
That shit is totally macaca
OK, so I'm not convinced that 'macaca' had much traction as a racist epithet before the whole episode. Granted, George Allen is totes conservative, he met with a slightly whitewashed Klan-like group, he has Confederate memorabilia in his office, and Democrats need his seat to retake the Senate, but I don't buy it. Not that I'm clamoring hard on his behalf. After apologizing halfheartedly, he and his coterie of advisers came up with an "Ethnic Rally" as a way of drumming up support among browner Virginians. WTF?
However, not only are we supposed to believe that in mis-speaking, he was uttering some secret shibboleth that his Appalachian audience was to take as signifying Allen was 'one of them' or 'seeing eye to eye with real Virginians' (a totally presumptuous claim), but that it backfired spectacularly because a word I have never heard of before in my life is actually a terribly loaded put-down for people from the Indian subcontinent, where monkeys of the genus macaca masturbate in the trees. The target audience would have to be stereotypically 'backwoods' enough for a political candidate to enhance his standing through racist speech but also sophisticated enough to pick up on the reference to a despised minority (and we all know which minority group racist rural Virginia hates most; my bet is that it isn't the South Asians clustered in and around Fairfax County, so why would Allen go that route?). I don't think the word is common parlance among racists or anyone else.
But really, the final nail in the coffin is that this episode is referred to as 'the macaca incident,' or as the NY Times blog 'The Caucus' put it, the 'macaca kerfuffle.' When Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) referred to 'white niggers' on national television, that wasn't referred to as 'the white nigger hoopla' or 'that wigga bidness.' Casually repeating racial pejoratives is kind of discouraged in the mainstream media, and not without cause. But not this time: 'macaca' is just too obscure to have real invective behind it. As racial insults go, it's belongs in the curio cabinet.
George Allen probably harbors genuine racist thoughts. But he's also an idiot who misspoke while trying to be off-the-cuff, and now he's being pummeled for a bad reason. I have a better reason: George Allen thinks we should still be presiding over Iraq's meltdown in the name of our national security. There, Democrats. Run against that, please.
However, not only are we supposed to believe that in mis-speaking, he was uttering some secret shibboleth that his Appalachian audience was to take as signifying Allen was 'one of them' or 'seeing eye to eye with real Virginians' (a totally presumptuous claim), but that it backfired spectacularly because a word I have never heard of before in my life is actually a terribly loaded put-down for people from the Indian subcontinent, where monkeys of the genus macaca masturbate in the trees. The target audience would have to be stereotypically 'backwoods' enough for a political candidate to enhance his standing through racist speech but also sophisticated enough to pick up on the reference to a despised minority (and we all know which minority group racist rural Virginia hates most; my bet is that it isn't the South Asians clustered in and around Fairfax County, so why would Allen go that route?). I don't think the word is common parlance among racists or anyone else.
But really, the final nail in the coffin is that this episode is referred to as 'the macaca incident,' or as the NY Times blog 'The Caucus' put it, the 'macaca kerfuffle.' When Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) referred to 'white niggers' on national television, that wasn't referred to as 'the white nigger hoopla' or 'that wigga bidness.' Casually repeating racial pejoratives is kind of discouraged in the mainstream media, and not without cause. But not this time: 'macaca' is just too obscure to have real invective behind it. As racial insults go, it's belongs in the curio cabinet.
George Allen probably harbors genuine racist thoughts. But he's also an idiot who misspoke while trying to be off-the-cuff, and now he's being pummeled for a bad reason. I have a better reason: George Allen thinks we should still be presiding over Iraq's meltdown in the name of our national security. There, Democrats. Run against that, please.
Comments:
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Yeah. Macaca (as a term in America) is empty I guess but the real issue to me is that George Allen felt not only the need but the wherewithal to call *anybody* names. Like, what kind of political savvy alows for calling anybody "names" in the first place? So in a way, he really could have said anything and it might have come out sounding inappropriate.
Wait: was the guy he was disparaging from the community from which that term has cultural weight? That could change things a lot. Barring something like that though, where my entire point would fall apart [admittedly] it seems like this might have been a case where G. Allen just threw out a set of phonemes and it turned out to be a really unfortunate (disasterous) coincidence.
Anyway, my point here is that the only people that ever think it's okay to call people names in the first place seem to be the people that are always making these gaffes. Content notwithstanding, that device is inappropriate and as far as the exchange of ideas it's a nonstarter.
Wait: was the guy he was disparaging from the community from which that term has cultural weight? That could change things a lot. Barring something like that though, where my entire point would fall apart [admittedly] it seems like this might have been a case where G. Allen just threw out a set of phonemes and it turned out to be a really unfortunate (disasterous) coincidence.
Anyway, my point here is that the only people that ever think it's okay to call people names in the first place seem to be the people that are always making these gaffes. Content notwithstanding, that device is inappropriate and as far as the exchange of ideas it's a nonstarter.
# posted by 
: 1:42 PM
: 1:42 PM
I'm just very skeptical that he knew he was calling someone "a name." Unless he's extraordinarily stupid (because duh, the kid was taping him and it was a campaign event with the media present). Because of all the strong and unrelated evidence of Allen's racism/outmoded and terrible ideas, I think people assumed he meant something heinous when, veering off script, he probably just said something and it came out all wrong--very, very all wrong. The fact that this can now be referred to as the 'Macaca' incident in the pages of the Times is further proof that the word is obscure and bereft of the same pejorative connotations as 'actual' slurs. The fact that S. R. Sidarth (aka 'Macaca') is South Asian is almost irrelevant because the term just isn't in the pantheon of epithets--if it were, if anyone used it in real life, if its use this time didn't send everyone to the dictionary to verify it, I seriously doubt a politician would say it.
Allen's a racist but this isn't proof of it; it's just proof that he's not that bright and shouldn't speak off the cuff.
Allen's a racist but this isn't proof of it; it's just proof that he's not that bright and shouldn't speak off the cuff.
Hey Pete,
Outdated I know, but I did come accross this website and do think it helps illuminate some of the issue here. While I disagree with some of the rhetorical strategy here, there is wit and heart:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/29/1091/84205
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Outdated I know, but I did come accross this website and do think it helps illuminate some of the issue here. While I disagree with some of the rhetorical strategy here, there is wit and heart:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/29/1091/84205
# posted by : 3:57 PM
: 3:57 PM << Home
