Thursday, September 18, 2008

Reengaging Macaca

The Virginia GOP is trying to reach out to minorities. Good for them. The speaker they've elected to help spearhead the efforts, however, may not have been the wisest choice:
The Virginia Republicans have a big rally coming up this Saturday that's designed to reach out to minority voters in Fairfax County.

Guess who is one of the featured speakers?

George Allen. Yes, that George Allen.

We checked in with the state GOP to ask if Allen is really an effective front-man for the party's efforts to win over minorities, given the "macaca" scandal.

The answer? Yes! "George Allen has an excellent record on issues of diversity, reaching out to people," Gerry Scimeca, communications director for the state party, told us. "His whole career, his whole life have been a testament to a guy who's treated people equally across racial lines, across every kind of line."

Wow. Wow. The spokesman went on to say that the macaca comment was no big deal because "Anyone had to go on Wikipedia to be offended by it. And you know how people can mess with Wikipedia."

Well, I tip my hat to the GOP, but I can only give them a C+ for effort. Best of luck, though.

2 comments:

ratpyan said...

I have degrees in Psychology, biology and a M.D. I had to go to Wikipedia to find out what Macaca meant. This is a tempest in a teapot, ridiculous, judge by actions not a single obscure word that was spoken perhaps without its pejorative connotations even realized. Guess there is nothing else to say against the man.

David Schraub said...

Well, there's the noose. And the love of the confederacy. But in reality, it doesn't matter if you understood it. It matters if he (Allen, and the student he targeted) did. Even if Allen really sucks at being racist, he's still racist.