George Allen -- Accidental Racist?
2006-10-02
Source: Los Angeles Times
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rss feedI FEEL JUST TERRIBLE for George Allen. Here he is, a Republican senator running for reelection in Virginia, a potential presidential candidate, a genuine man who obviously has not a prejudiced bone in his body. And yet he has suffered from a series of coincidences, one after another, that have given skeptics the unfortunate misimpression that he is a racist.
Last May, my colleague, Ryan Lizza, wrote an article in the New Republic showing how Allen acquired a strong affinity for the Confederacy as a young man growing up in California. Allen had a Confederate flag on his car and wore a Confederate pin — not the usual passions for a West Coast kid who, at the time, had never lived in the South. One of Allen's former high school classmates told Lizza, "Allen is known as a racist in our Southern California society."
But, as Allen explained, nothing could be further from the truth. When he was a young man, Allen explained to Lizza, "I generally bucked authority, and the rebel flag was just a way to express that attitude." This makes perfect sense. What Southern California teen has not donned the stars and bars as a way of expressing youthful rebellion?
The faux controversy probably would have died out except that, earlier this year, Allen publicly singled out a dark-skinned young man at a campaign rally, calling him "macaca" and calling out, "Welcome to America." Somehow this became a matter of controversy. But, I ask you, what's wrong with welcoming immigrants, or immigrant-looking people (you know what I mean) to America? Is this not the essence of hospitality?
As for "macaca," Allen later explained with obvious sincerity that it was simply a made-up word. Alas, this made-up word also happens to be a slur against dark-skinned people, one common among French Tunisians, and it also happens that Allen's mother is French Tunisian, and that Allen speaks French.
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