Q: What is a "Macaca" and should we fear it?

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Our next president?

See this man? You should become familiar with him. Many pundits think that he has a pretty decent shot at becoming the next President of the United States. Even though McCain of Arizona seems to be more popular, Allen, currently a Republican senator from the state of Virginia, is more popular with the base of the Republican party and his ambitions are well known. The first thing he has to do however, is hold out against upstart Democrat James Webb who wants to strip Allen of his senate seat.

Today’s Washington Post has an interesting article (thanks for the tip Sanjivani) about Allen’s remarks to a young staffer that Webb had hired to shadow the Allen campaign:

Democrat James Webb’s Senate campaign accused Sen. George Allen (R) of making demeaning comments Friday to a 20-year-old Webb volunteer of Indian descent.

S.R. Sidarth, a senior at the University of Virginia, had been trailing Allen with a video camera to document his travels and speeches for the Webb campaign. During a campaign speech Friday in Breaks, Virginia, near the Kentucky border, Allen singled out Sidarth and called him a word that sounded like “Macaca.”

“This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He’s with my opponent. He’s following us around everywhere. And it’s just great. We’re going to places all over Virginia, and he’s having it on film and its great to have you here and you show it to your opponent because he’s never been there and probably will never come.”

After telling the crowd that Webb was raising money in California with a “bunch of Hollywood movie moguls,” Allen again referenced Sidarth, who was born and raised in Fairfax County.

“Lets give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia,” said Allen, who then began talking about the “war on terror…” [Link]

So seriously. What is a “Macaca?” This could hurt me if I ever make it to Jeopardy and I don’t know that answer.

Wadhams [Allen’s campaign manager] said Allen campaign staffers had begun calling Sidarth “mohawk” because of a haircut Wadhams said the Webb staffer has. “Macaca was just a variation of that,” Wadhams said. [Link]

Good to know. Will one of you readers please add that definition to the Urban Dictionary? The etymological debate raged on though:

Depending on how you spell it, the name Allen gave Sidarth means different things.

If spelled M-a-c-a-c-a, the term refers to a species of monkeys in the Eastern Hemisphere. “Is he saying Sidarth is a monkey?” Todd [Webb’s spokesperson] asked.

The word M-a-k-a-k-a refers to a town in South Africa. [Link]

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p>Watch the clip yourself:

I say that South Asian Americans should begin calling each other “Macaca.” Like, “What up Macaca?” Let’s take this word and make it our own, thereby taking power away from the current establishment. Then we can beat the crap of any non-South Asians that use it, especially if they look like they either work for the MAN or might actually be the MAN.

182 thoughts on “Q: What is a "Macaca" and should we fear it?”

  2. Frist!

    Maybe Allen didn’t know the best derogatory comment to make; or rather thought that something nonsense sounding wasn’t derogatory. Stupid on his part.

    I like the ‘welcome to america’ part. Maybe he thought he was Latino not South Asian. Doubt this is going to be picked as much as the Biden story was.

  3. I just had another thought. What if Allen was really trying to say, “My Kaka?” Maybe he knew the guju term for one’s paternal uncle and he was simply showing respect to Sidarth by giving him a shout out.

  5. macaca- is the mother of chewbaca,named after the fertility goddess of the wookies. maybe sidarth’s hair problems dont stop with his mohawk?

    allen looks like alec baldwin’s stunt man.

  6. Well, I think it’s only fair that everyone turn around and start addressing Sen. Allen as Sahab Safed Bandar. I had thought to be more vulgar, and reference a certain part of the monkey’s anatomy, but there are probably sensitive ears about.

  7. I’m pretty sure he was making a reference to the outstanding Brazilian midfielder Kaka, probably in homage to how much ground S. R. has been covering lately. As in, wassup “my Kaka.”

    By the way, I’d like to welcome all the Sepia Mutineers to America. Abu, Anna (but what’s your real name?), Sridaughter and all the rest of y’uns. Work hard, stay out of trouble, make sure your ID is visible at all times, and we’ll let you stay.

  8. Allen, Biden, Clinton – all seem to be putting their foot in their mouths when it comes to IAs. What is going on back East?

  9. Makak (Belgium & the Netherlands) a Moroccan; derived from macaque

    Whoopsie.

    I guarantee that the quote above, taken from a list of ethnic slurs, will start showing up in the mainstream media and torpedo Allen’s run.

    Ah. I’ve always wanted to change the course of history…

  12. i see someone has already beaten me to the punch on the macaque link from Eschaton.

    that post, in turn, interrupted my defense of Allen. he is in fact a scholar of Sanskrit, and he had americanized “mlechha.” in polite company it means “foreigner,” but before then it was “barbarian.” the point is the same, because it really means “damn dirty ape.” we all know how edumacated our republican brethern are, after all, the republic gave us anakin.

  14. I think this is despicable. Worse than Biden or Hillary’s gaffes. Whether it was a real ethnic slur or something he made up, it was meant to show Mr. Sidarth’s “foreigness.” I’m sure it was scary given the fact that it was an all-white audience and Allen’s interest in the confederate flag. The fact that this guy’s one of the frontrunners for the GOP presidential nomination makes it all the more disconcerting.

  17. Oh how silly.

    I finally figured it out. But jeez, that took way too long, and we’ve probably destroyed an innocent man’s career in the process.

    It was a mere slip of the tongue. Allen meant to call Sidharth “Rwandan community justice system,” you know, based on Democrats’ well-known advocacy of perps. He was, basically, giving him a friendly new name and welcoming him to America.

    Oh come on. Don’t act like you’ve never meant to say gacaca and accidentally said something else.

  18. George Allen on a good day never struck me as either charismatic or a good speaker. Mark Warner is probably going to be the best hope for the White House.

  19. he wanted to say “my chacha” but instead said “macaca”. I’ll forgive him for that 🙂

  20. Perhaps we should print “United Association of Macacas against Allen” T shirts and show up at his rallies… 😉

  21. Nice. That is the worst mohawk ever. Have to say that Allen’s staffers are pretty bold to claim something that far-fetched as their rationale. Although maybe they are so punk rock that they think regular haircuts are mohawks now.

  22. Hmm. A name mix up by itself—nicknames don’t make any sense—not a big deal. Welcome to America by itself—well, people are always talking about “welcome to the real America” and it drives me insane, but it’s par for the course. Not a big deal. Transitioning to War on Terror by itself–not a big deal. But all three? Not impressive.

    I like the Gujarati uncle theory. I also like the Wonkette picture of Sidarth in a Mariachi band. Mariachi is cool.

  24. I think Abhi is really on to something by proposing that we reclaim macaca and start addressing each other with it. I mean, macacas pleaze, we might be on to something. We might even form a ghazal supergroup that addresses the ills that plague our community with a hyper-anti-authority slant, and call ourselves, MWA. And I’ll be Eazy Ishwaranathan.

  25. Actually one moron called me chief after I told him I was an Indian..i am not kidding.

    People call me Pocahontas all the time. I never know whether they’re actually dumb or think they’re being clever.

  26. I think the ‘Welcome to America’ bit is far more offensive to an Indian-American.

  27. did someone change his wiki profile or was this always there? (in case the website changes it back):

    George Felix Allen or macaca (born March 8, 1952 in Whittier, California) is a white Republican U.S. Senator from Virginia. He is running for re-election in 2006 and has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2008.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Felix_Allen

  28. At least he didn’t call Mr.Macaca up on stage to “say something in Indian.” Geez, had it been me, I would’ve slapped the macaca out of the good senator.

  29. I say that South Asian Americans should begin calling each other “Macaca.” Like, “What up Macaca?” Let’s take this word and make it our own, thereby taking power away from the current establishment. Then we can beat the crap of any non-South Asians that use it, especially if they look like they either work for the MAN or might actually be the MAN.

    Yeti approves.

    eg,

    “I looove desi people… but I hate macacas.”

  30. Wow, Webb looks like one interesting guy actually. A Naval hero, a Military Secretary and a novelist! But what I am amused is what is to me the most interesting part of his biography examined in the context of this post. I looked him up on Wikipedia, and what caught my eye–and may get me going to the bookstore—is his book “Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America.” I’ve always been fascinated with the various ethnicities that combine to form White, in some intractable Voltronic way, and the weird, hard to discern relationships between class and ethnicity and religion. So just on the face of it the book looks really interesting. But it looks particularly interesting, b/c you’d think it would be the ScotsIrish champion who’d make the hard-to-parse-possibly-xenophobic remarks. You might also think it odd that it’s the expert on Appalachian culture who gets accused of not hanging out in places like Breaks, VA by a career politician who’s a graduate of Palos Verdes High and UVA–unless you realize that this line of attack is essentially automatically deployed by all Republicans against all Democrats these days.

  31. He knew EXACTLY what he was saying:

    His father George Herbert Allen was a legendary NFL coach who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002. His mother, Henrietta Lumbroso, was a Jewish immigrant of Tunisian/Italian/French background.

    Apparently, it’s French/Belgian slang…

  32. That was a SLUR, pure and simple! It was some Jungle-book-Mowgli-parrot-brazilan-amazon mash-up that he thought up on the spur, because he is shallow and all those things look , sound the same to Allen.

  33. “you’d think it would be the ScotsIrish champion who’d make the hard-to-parse-possibly-xenophobic remarks.”

    i’m curious as to why you say that? how would that make him more likely to utter a possibly xenophobic remark than allen (don’t know what his ethnic origins are)?

  34. Poor Allen was probably just a little constipated and had thoughts of poo on his brain, you know a brown man with a camera taking pictures and following you everywhere can do weird thing for your plumbing, so my vote is for “my kaka.”

  37. …and this Allen guy grew up in Whittier…………….and learned nada about being nice to people who do not dig meat and potatoes.

  38. …or all that pent up rage at the food smells that emanated from neighboring Artesia finally got to bechara Allen

  39. i’m curious as to why you say that

    Well, that came out slightly wrong, but what I really meant is that it if you were going to be a White Supremacist Nativist, you would be more effective coming from a Scots-Irish vantage than from pretty much any other. From what I’ve read about White Supremacist subcultures, they tend to really focus on ScotsIrish heritage b/c it makes for the most coherent (if not ACTUALLY coherent) “This land belongs to the White People” narrative, especially b/c the ScotsIrish mixed with the Native Americans a lot. I’m not saying it would be a truly good vantage point, or that vantage point require you be a White Supremacist, but it does seem to be the most optimum starting point for that kind of vision of America.

    Don’t get me wrong, I love much of ScotsIrish culture, and I’m dead serious about wanting to read this book, it sounds awesome.

  40. Neither here nor there–I think one small but non-insignificant reason I like ScotsIrish culture is b/c it’s really fun to say Scots-Irish over and over again. It’s just got a wonderful mouthfeel. Try it. Scots-Irish! Scots-Irish! You can even try saying it with a little bit of brogue or a Scottish accent. It makes me crave something buttery and warm.

    Macaca, on the other hand, has no such mouthfeel.

    I’m not sure I buy the Tunisian slang thing. Why would you break out your mother’s Tunisian slang in Apppalachian country?

  41. Why would you break out your mother’s Tunisian slang in Apppalachian country?

    Why not? Especially if you grew up hearing such an epithet…it seems like it would flow rather naturally.

  42. Too bad Sidharth isn’t Jewish and Allen isn’t Mel Gibson otherwise instead of making insulting justifications for his racist comments (e.g., macaca really means mohawk and not a person of African decent), he would be issuing apologies.

  43. From the Wiki bio: “His mother, Henrietta Lumbroso, was a Jewish immigrant of Tunisian/Italian/French background.”

    Macaca sylvanus (Barbary Macaque)- “The barbary macaque is found in the countries of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, and in Gibraltar. This species is found in montane oak and cedar forests in Northern Africa.”

    http://members.tripod.com/uakari/macaca_sylvanus.html

    So it’s not hard to put two and two together. His mom is an immigrant from Tunisia, although of mixed background including French and Italian. So perhaps “macaca” is what some French call North Africans. (Aren’t one of you Mutineers from France?) Maybe he heard the term from his mom as a slur against Muslim or less mixed Tunisians- she was Jewish.

  46. I know I “should” be more offended, but the Gujurati explanation has me laughing so hard, I just can’t focus….. anyway, Senator Allen is such an idiot he can’t even insult the South Asian community effectively for maximum political advantage. How the hell is he going to survive the South Carolina Primary? (See #4) If he calls Senator McCain’s daughter his “illegitimate macaca child” no one will know what the hell he is talking about.

  47. UPS (comment #43) — you’re brilliant. That’s such an unusual slur, it’s likely that he’s heard it before in the context you describe from his mother. Imagine the firestorm if another ethnic group was so labeled.

    “You can’t even go into a 7-11 these days without running into a macaca. Am I right?” The two presidential contenders nodded in agreement.

  48. So perhaps “macaca” is what some French call North Africans. (Aren’t one of you Mutineers from France?)

    Je suis là!

    And, uh, yes, it is very much a slur. He called the brother a monkey, straight up.

    Amazing what comes out of people’s mouths sometimes when they don’t have a script to read from.

  49. so macacas, sounds like you guys are a tad upset over the remarks of some would-be president. hear, hear. be not afraid for the gods of macacas shall vanquish those that titter at the great race. he who walks with a camera and a yellow shirt shall inherit the earth (and meet virginia in heaven!). so mr allen may have smirked but the macacas shall have the last laugh.

  50. The guy has a history of making questionable choices when it comes to racial subject matter. His High school picture features him proudly wearing a conferdate pin and he is known to fly one off his car in the past.