Rhesus ipsa loquitur
CNN.com - Senator denies remark was racist - Aug 16, 2006
George, you called an Indian-American a name that apparently refers to monkeys. It is absolutely impossible for that not to be construed as racist; that your people tried to invent an excuse claiming that you were referring to a nonexistent mohawk haircut indicates that they know this. Either you are a bigot, or you are too stupid to even serve in the Senate. Probably both.
posted by Mac @ 8/16/2006 12:36:00 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I have serious doubts that the good Congressman actually knew what the word meant...or that it has a pejorative, racist connotation in some European languages.
However, the fact that the man could not hold his tongue, and instead publicly picked on a kid who was annoying him suggests to me that he doesn't have the tact necessary for the position. Who knows, next he could be screaming the F-word on the floor of Congress...
There's no doubt that "macaque" and derivatives are used as racist terms in Europe. What's scarier (and not reported) is that certain white-supremecist groups have apparently taken to using the term. Is that where he got it? Who knows.
More here.
Today, the word is used mainly by two groups of people: scientists studying African and Asian primates, and bullies looking to insult others for the color of their skin. An online dictionary of ethnic slurs lists "macaque" as a French and Belgian word for black North Africans. In the Oxford Spanish Dictionary, "macaco" and "macaca" carry the colloquial meaning of "little devil," "Chinaman" and "ugly person." Anthropologists who study Brazilian street slang have noted that the police will call the local kids "macaco," or monkey, in reference to their African heritage. Robin E. Sheriff, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, has written that the purpose of it is to demonstrate "interpersonal domination" and signal "the historically entrenched structures on which that domination is based."
The derivation seems unlikely, but Allen's mother is a (white) French-Tunisian and he speaks French (not that he's going to do that publicly).
Oh, he knew exactly what he was saying. The people in his audience may not have known exactly, but they got the connotation. I hope this episode puts an end to his presidential aspirations, but the public does have a short collective memory.
I'm sure his love for the rebel rag is purely coincidental.
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