Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Over?
Aug. 17th, 2006 03:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanexcerpted from an e-mail I just got from Move-On (an organization with whom I have a number of disagreements but they do get the word out on stuff):
"On Friday, Republican Senator George Allen sank to a new low. At a campaign stop the senator singled out the only non-white member of the audience--S.R. Sidarth, a young Indian-American volunteering for his opponent and called him "macaca" (a racial slur meaning 'monkey').1 He went on to say, "welcome to America." As it happens, Mr. Sidarth was born and raised in Virginia."
...
Unfortunately, this isn't the first incident of its kind. Sen. Allen--who's a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008--has a long history of demeaning minorities. Here are just a few examples of his racial hostility.2
* He used to display a noose--hanging from a tree--in his law offices.
* When running for governor he admitted to displaying the confederate flag in his home.
* As governor, he proclaimed April as "Confederate Heritage and History Month" and issued a proclamation calling the civil war "a struggle for independence and sovereign rights" (the statement did not condemn slavery).
* He opposed the creation of a holiday commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr.
All of this would be bad enough if Senator Allen were a small-time politician. But he's running in one of the key Senate races, and currently, he's ahead.
The media is watching this story closely and you can help show that ordinary Americans are ready to stand up for each other when a powerful man uses race to divide us. Can you sign the petition today?
http://political.moveon.org/withdrawallen
---------------
Sources:
1. "'Macaca' or 'Macaque'," Jefferey Feldman at MyDD, Monday, August 14, 2006
http://mydd.com/story/2006/8/14/17325/4950
2. "George Allen's Race Problem," The New Republic, April 27, 2006
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20060508&s=lizza050806
"On Friday, Republican Senator George Allen sank to a new low. At a campaign stop the senator singled out the only non-white member of the audience--S.R. Sidarth, a young Indian-American volunteering for his opponent and called him "macaca" (a racial slur meaning 'monkey').1 He went on to say, "welcome to America." As it happens, Mr. Sidarth was born and raised in Virginia."
...
Unfortunately, this isn't the first incident of its kind. Sen. Allen--who's a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008--has a long history of demeaning minorities. Here are just a few examples of his racial hostility.2
* He used to display a noose--hanging from a tree--in his law offices.
* When running for governor he admitted to displaying the confederate flag in his home.
* As governor, he proclaimed April as "Confederate Heritage and History Month" and issued a proclamation calling the civil war "a struggle for independence and sovereign rights" (the statement did not condemn slavery).
* He opposed the creation of a holiday commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr.
All of this would be bad enough if Senator Allen were a small-time politician. But he's running in one of the key Senate races, and currently, he's ahead.
The media is watching this story closely and you can help show that ordinary Americans are ready to stand up for each other when a powerful man uses race to divide us. Can you sign the petition today?
http://political.moveon.org/withdrawallen
---------------
Sources:
1. "'Macaca' or 'Macaque'," Jefferey Feldman at MyDD, Monday, August 14, 2006
http://mydd.com/story/2006/8/14/17325/4950
2. "George Allen's Race Problem," The New Republic, April 27, 2006
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20060508&s=lizza050806
