Though I live and vote in Pennsylvania’s 7th district, the big race for me — and probably most SM readers — was really the Senate in Virginia: the “macaca” race. In hindsight, it’s surprising that George Allen didn’t seem concerned that the person he called “macaca” happened to be carrying a video camera, and probably didn’t even dream that the event being filmed would immediately be seen by millions on news shows, talk shows, and of course, on video sharing sites like Youtube (go ahead, watch the video again, you know you want to). It’s possible that this will go down as the first “Youtube” election, just as 2004 was the first “blogged” election — though notably, the blogosphere (dominated by liberal blogs) didn’t seem to make a difference in the outcome of 2004, and I’m sure it’s an open question as to whether Youtube had any real impact in the tight Senate races in places like Virginia and Montana.
“Macaca” was one of those strange insults you don’t know what to do with at first. As with many ethnic slurs (remember “rat-eater”?), it was unclear at first that it even was a slur, since “macaca” isn’t a word commonly used to describe (or insult) people from the Indian subcontinent. That isn’t really new; ethnic slurs thrive on ignorance, and often misdescribe the people they are aimed at.
As people looked up various possible definitions of the word macaca, they discovered that none of them are complimentary. Like most South Asians in the U.S. (see Abhi’s post, and the reactions to it), I immediately registered “macaca” as an insult, though I wasn’t surprised that many others didn’t see it that way. Eventually the mainstream consensus seemed to be that it was in fact an ethnic insult, and the next question for most South Asian Americans was, “will this matter to anyone?” Will anyone else be as offended by this as we are? More is at stake in that question than first appears. Behind it is a deep anxiety about acceptance and integration, about being equally valued and respected in American society. Everyone is on board (usually) if a public figure makes a remark that could be construed as hostile to other, more settled minority groups — the hostile response to Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic tirade this summer was essentially unequivocal. And Trent Lott’s political career was ended derailed by a comment relating to Jim Crow. But are Virginians, and Americans in general, going to care about “macaca,” which affects a newer, smaller, and less visible minority community? As the macaca story gathered steam, there was almost a sigh of relief as the answer appeared to be “yes.” And now, if Jim Webb’s slim lead holds following a probable recount in the coming days, it will be hard not to see this incident as a decisive factor in the election.But did “macaca” really make a difference? One CNN pundit suggested, based on exit polls, that “macaca” may well not have been finally as important to voters as issues such as the war in Iraq — 56% of voters said they did not think George Allen was a racist. But it’s hard to argue with the huge swing in the polls that followed the initial comment — even if in the end, exit poll results suggest that other issues may have been more prevalent in voters’ minds. In a race as close as this, it did make a difference.
There was a bit of gallows humor following the “macaca” gaffe that the use of racial slurs might actually help George Allen, but that turned out to be totally false: Virginia is changing. There are now a decent number of South Asians in Virginia — 77,000 — and a significant subset of them are voting American citizens. Assuming that the vast majority were voting for Webb, there are certainly enough desis there to have affected the final tally of the election in Webb’s favor (again, if the current 3000 vote margin holds after a recount). Other stats: according to the U.S. census in 2000, 4.3 percent of Virginia’s population is Asian. And close to 600,000 Virginia residents (8.5 percent, with a total state population of 7 million) are foreign born, well above the national average. Virginia is looking less like the “southern firewall,” and more like a mid-Atlantic state like Pennsylvania or Maryland. Urban counties are very blue, suburban counties will be purple (currently leaning blue), and the sparsely populated rural counties will be very red.
Guys, Allen might have lost the battle. He still got 49% of the vote. Can we think his political career finished? Hardly… There are already rumblings that he will stand in 2008 for the other senate seat in va (link). Desis and desi bloggers might have played a part but we need to thank the WashPost and other main stream media for not letting go of that remark so easily.
Considering Allen’s past history it is naive to assume that the remarks didn’t show any anti-immigrant, racist attitude.
I don’t think anybody is saying that this incident alone made large number of people to vote webb instead of allen. As someone else said it is a tipping point. It is entirely probable that allen might have made another gaffe (not realted to us desis) and lost the election because of it. What SM is celebrating is that desis didn’t get ignored like in the past.
Blacks in America have shown similar attitude against Jews, Koreans (remember the Walmart ambassador’s remarks against Korean shop keepers?) and it is nothing new about Indians. This is a totally different problem that needs to be dealt with separately. Note that blacks as group doesn’t hold that much sway over policy compared to a very white senator and presidential hopeful from south.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6129988.stm
i was watching the coverage last night and followed this race closely. i just can’t get over how 1+M people could vote for a racist! very very disappointing. at the end of the day, racism against blacks/jews/latinos is more “costly” politically than against other minority groups including south asian americans.
i honestly don’t believe that bloggers or SM made a significant difference in making the macaca issue relevant. it’s really the editorial staff at WaPo that made the difference here. the media outlets were looking for something juicy and they made the tunisian connection. sorry, just my .02 of cynicism.
YouTube swings the Iraq war. Those are the Breaks.
the tunisian connection
‘Macaca’ is apparently common among white supremacists in Virginia.
Delurking for the first time:
I am the white mom of a South Asian immigrant, and I personally moved as many votes through my relatives and business associates as I could. Not because the kid he insulted could be my kid, but on the principle that bigotry has no place in our society.
Allen’s revelation of his racism–and really, not so much the obscure slur but the ‘welcome to America’ insult was a uniquely self-sabotaging way to send the message, I’m a bigot–had an enormous impact on this race. As it appears that Webb will become the 51st Dem senator, that impact will be felt throughout the country.
While I agree with Dan that it doesn’t necessarily show South Asian political muscle being flexed, that’s not the point. The point is that a sitting Senator, who was seriously being considered as Presidential timbre, was rejected by many voters who saw him for what he was: a simpleminded, foulmouthed bigot. Calling brown people names, and insulting the patriotism of immigrants, was rejected as a political strategy by a majority. A slim one, but a majority.
The proper response, I think, is not so much ‘Yay desis! Make another dosa!’ as ‘Yay Virginians! Come join us in the post-Civil-War era!’
“Blacks” in american stood up in the 1960’s and proclaimed “I am a Man” so that we Asian Americans could come to realize we don’t need to be “mistaken” for “ching ching ping pong” and absurd but dehumanizing labels like “macaca”. No person looks at another human being and calls him a nonsensical bunch of syllables and has any respect for him. I’m sorry that a few people have called you cheap or have a little bit of trouble that you sell them alcohol and cigarretes 24/7 instead of fresh fruit and healthy food.
Go drive your precious BMW and pretend you and G Allen would be best friends except that he made one gaffe that “guys” he really didn’t mean.
I totally disagree and not because I’m a blogger. The Wapo wouldn’t have written about this for more than a day if not for bloggers.
🙂
Virginia is for lovers, not bigots.
To borrow the terms from Malcolm Galdwells’ Tipping Point, viral epidemics need all three players(mavens-sidharth, connectors-SM/youtube & salesman-MSM). It is childish to debate who deserves more credit, or whose victory it is. Without SM & brownz raising and sticking to this issue, I doubt any MSM coverage would have helped. It would look like MSM making mountain out of molehill, (Look even Indians don’t care about it).
I think they would’ve given it 3 stories as they dislike Allen, but Kos and TPM went macacashit over the story.
Dan – As a Virginian, I know a lot of people that fall in those categories. I tend to be more moderate (voted for Bush and for Kaine) and the incident put me over to the Webb camp. My dad probably wasn’t going to vote until that incident. I know a bunch of OTHER minorities that seriously -cared- about that issue and made it a point to vote because of it. Voter turnout was over 50% in this election– and it was a midterm election! and if you look at the results, even if it was 10k votes swung in one direction, that’s the election right there.
Adding my vote to the embracing “macaca” issue: the fairly casual use of the word on SM is the one thing about SM that makes me consider whether I should stop reading it. It’s one thing to embrace a common slur to take away its sting and power(e.g. the way the gay community has reclaimed “queer”), but to embrace a term that no one had heard of before one incident makes no sense to me. If anything, this is prolonging its use and transmitting it people who might otherwise forget the term after the Allen incident fades.
I agree. Just the way Allen said it was so demeaning and insulting. Anything said in that manner and tone shows how much hatred boils within him for other races!
You really think so? I would totally disagree. The media has ADD; it won’t follow a story if no one reads it. I think blogs and the continued vigilance of brownz kept this in the media spotlight.
I’m a happy camper today, but my happiness is marred by the fact that Allen has been such a contender in spite of quite a bit of evidence demonstrating his racism. And to all the goofy-ass macacas who are willing to cut the guy some slack: what would it take to convince you? Should he come to your house and yell it at you and your family? Is that the only way to make a believer out of you? Jeeze. Wake up. Saying he did it without malice or rationalizing how it happened is stupid. It takes a lifetime of thinking a particular way to come out with something like that, especially in front of a camera, while on the campaign trail. He may have done it without malice. But he still did it, and that don’t make it right. I interpret his use of the word “macaca” to mean, “I fear that which is different from me and what I hold dear, which is the Confederate flag and a tradition of majority supremacy. I will do what it takes when the time is right to make sure that people who look like you do not get very far. I hope that time is soon.”
Some may say I read a bit much into that word. Some would be wrong.
Macaca, please.
Look, the brown community has long needed a self-deprecating term to use at/with each other. “Macaca” fits the bill perfectly. It’s fun to say. It practically rolls off the tongue. When I use the word, or when I hear another brown use that word, I see humor and irony in it. It’s a way of taking the sting out of someone else’s ridiculous beliefs. It means I can laugh at myself, and at the community I’m a part of.
By the way, this is something that we macacas just don’t do enough of: laugh at ourselves.
Abhi wrote:
Manish Vij wrote:
fact is, even before the “mainstream” bloggers caught hold of this, the Webb PR machine was pushing this to WaPo and others. Pick up the New Yorker from Oct 30 and read the Peter Boyer article “Southern Discomfort”. It details how the VA race became all about Allen and how the media furor around the macaca incident and resulting investigations/confessions of his prior teammates/classmates prevented Webb from really getting any visibility.
sorry as bloggers i can’t take your opinion about the impact of blogging on this as being unbiased. don’t worry, that doesn’t mean i don’t like SM and think it’s of some positive consequence/impact =)
hey, who got the 100,000th SM comment in today? and if it the comment was due to macaca-gate, does that mean allen’s macaca was good for webb and good for SM?
prize goes to hari on the live-blogging 2006 thread. here’s to another 100,000 comments of insanity (and the occasional voice of reason and intellect mixed up in the mix).
I never knew I was a macaca before George Allen. Thanks to George, I now know, and knowing is half the battle. GI Joe!
“Blacks” in american stood up in the 1960’s and proclaimed “I am a Man” so that we Asian Americans could come to realize we don’t need to be “mistaken” for “ching ching ping pong” and absurd but dehumanizing labels like “macaca”. No person looks at another human being and calls him a nonsensical bunch of syllables and has any respect for him. I’m sorry that a few people have called you cheap or have a little bit of trouble that you sell them alcohol and cigarretes 24/7 instead of fresh fruit and healthy food.
Go drive your precious BMW and pretend you and G Allen would be best friends except that he made one gaffe that “guys” he really didn’t mean.
I assume that the rhetoric above was directed at me. You really need to read the article as you appear ignorant of the facts. I just live in the area and don’t own any stores. In summary, a masked man shot an indian convenience store owner. The neighborhood is black along with the local police force. The store owner had five bullets pumped into him and is in critical condition. There were witnesses who have information (owners youngest son). The police chief and department appear disinterested in solving the case or providing additional protection despite having other stores having been robbed the next day of the shooting. In fact the store owner have been warned against carrying guns. The store owners go to the local City hall meeting to plead for help where they are treated shabbily by others present in the audience. I bet it would have made national headlines if it was a republican stronghold. the point is that prejudice is bad irrespective of which color it comes in. here’s the link.
As far as being friends with G Allen…I never assumed that. The point was that the gaffe had more to do malice towards other party. Having a guy with a video camera in your face from the other party would irritate the heck out of me too. I wonder how many desi friends webb had before the campaign. I also bet his Vietnamese wife is way younger than him (unrelated but tells something about the man).
I think siddhartha hit the nail on the head with comment #3. I think it was less about his insulting Indians, and more about the publicity around it triggering connections to his “proud” history of celebrating confederate flags and nooses (btw, November 7 is a nice day for a hangin’!), as well as causing other people to come out with more revelations about his racist behavior (calling them the n word, stuffing deer heads in their mailboxes, and so on). And his ham handed explanation of his Jewish descent certainly didn’t help (or hurt, depending on your point of view). At the end of the day, despite his boyish good looks and seemingly easy charm, his true nature couldn’t be masked. And that means one less loony in the senate, and hopefully one less loony running for president.
I think this is taking it too far. I’m glad Allen lost. I never liked the welcome to america comment and I became convinced that he harbors some subconcious racist feelings when I found out about allegations of the ‘n’ word and the deers head incident, the confederate flag, etc. etc., and all of these things together, along with my sensitivity to racism, made me follow the race quite closely. However, i don’t blame Tiggs for questioning whether the comment alone translates into an endorsement of policies that hurt Indians in particular or even an actual, conscious dislike for Indians, etc. I don’t completely fault those Indians who might have seen Allen as someone who, although might have grown up in an environment of racism and consequently was somewhat ignorant in matters of political correctness and sensitivity, wasn’t necessarily harmful to their interests. I bet there are many Indians who hear lots of subtle, subconcious racist comments out of the mouths of otherwise intelligent people who are somewhat ignorant of their own offensiveness, but find that they can still be friends with them and call on them for help. Maybe these were the people who didn’t fret the comments so much and voted for Allen based on other issues. Call me too trusting, but I very much doubt whether Allen is incapable of being good friends with minorities.
Also, this is based on the assumption that ‘macaca’ was a subconcious thing and not an intentional use of a known slur… I’m pretty surprised at myself for defending Allen in any way whatsoever…I guess I’m just questioning whether I myself have been so critical of him because I actually took a great deal of offense, or simply because he’s a republican.
Now that he will no longer be senator, let’s welcome George Allen to the real world of Virginia.
You are completely clueless.
What did he say?
I couldn’t find photos/video of the ethnic rally on the Allen website, did they finally take it down?
I wonder when they finally realized that it doesn’t sit well with field-macacas.
And his ham handed explanation of his Jewish descent certainly didn’t help What did he say?
He made silly jokes about his favorite food being pork chops and the fact that he had a ham sandwich for lunch. Then he did come around and say that he was proud of his Jewish ancestry.
He also came unhinged when a reporter asked him about whether his mother was Jewish.
Ok that is bad and you’re right, I hadn’t gone to the link.
Allen was too dumb to learn from his fellow Virginian Jim Moran on how to handle scandal. Benched in the game.
Salon.com quotes Ultrabrown and Sepiamutiny in today’s “How the world works”. (watch brief ad or subscription needed to get to site).
I’ll just reiterate–there are words tossed at South Asians or people of Middle-Eastern dissent that are more common and are more powerful in their ability to hurt than “macaca.” Macaca has no sting because it is so completely from left field: who ever heard of it before? I’ve been called a lot of things but never a macaca. Thus, embracing “macaca” is nowhere nearly as powerful or meaningful as say, gays embracing the term “queer.” What would take guts and act to remove sting, is if South Asians reclaimed a terrible term like “camel jockey” or “towel head” or “terrorist” or any of the other horrendous, offensive, hurtful names that the ignorant or the racist throw at us. Somehow, I don’t think that will happen.
In terms of laughing at ourselves, don’t we do it all the time? What South Asian American kid doesn’t spend a disproportionate amount of time honing his or her “desi” accent? Making auntie/uncle jokes? Macaca, so unnecessary.
As a white man of non-Indian descent, I understood Allen’s use of the slur “macaca” instinctively before any of the blogosphere intellectuals tried parsing the different meanings. It has nothing to do with monkeys or any other obscure meaning you put on it. Having witnessed firsthand how these insults are created, I can say this: it sounds foreign, funny, disparaging, and un-American, just the effect he was going for. George Allen is proud in his ignorance of the world, and of learning in general. He knows nothing about macaques or anything else outside the Southeast USA. I’m also pretty damn sure he had no idea as to what Siddharth was. Given the transcripts, and the context in which his “joke” was delivered to an all-white crowd of simple country folk, I’m certain it would not have mattered if Siddharth was from Kenya, Malaysia, or Peru. He tried to turn Siddharth, and by extension the Webb campaign in general, into Borat, someone to be mocked largely because he was different. I’m glad to see his creepy tactics fail, meaning that his race for president is now dead.
Laughing at yourself is easier to do when you believe that other people aren’t already laughing maliciously at you.
Amen.
By all accounts, even his sister’s, Allen has always been a vile, obnoxious bully. And a racist. Which explains why he is so popular with the redneck constituency in Virginia. He is just the kind of arrogant, narrow-minded loudmouth jerk that has come to represent the republican ascendancy. Think of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage et al.
To think that such a jackass is considered presidential material by the Republicans speaks volumes about how low they have sunk.
Allen is about to concede. Check CNN if you are near it.
Yes it’ official, Allen concedes http://apnews.excite.com/article/20061109/D8L9OQJ81.html
does the happy macaca dance
Hey, babes in Macacaland, Manish and Amardeep are sitting in the Salon right now. I was just forwarded this by a political pundit:
Salon.com: Hail, Macaca!
They go on to quote Manish and Amardeep.
Now do you think blogs were irrelevant in catapulting this story farther?
Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.
They quote me too 🙂
Allen was ignorant and paid for it with his political life. Yet Hillary Clinton’s blurb of calling Convenience Store owners Gandhi, or Biden’s Clueless joke doesn’t seem to bother the overwhelming democrat base at Sepia here. Lets call Spade a Spade..,.Hillary, Biden are just as ignorant….especially Hillary considering she has been to India and gets enormous donation from the Indian population, and considering that she’s the next presidential candidate for the Democrats (Shudders).
OT- I don’t see the logic that the desi community owes the black community for the civil rights movement. The black community was fighting for its own rights. They did not have desis in mind, and the situation now is a progression of history. In the same vein it can be said the Indian community owes the White man for the War of Independence and creating an incredible document called the consitution. If we are to go on historical debt, lets not forget that the largest investment in the US in its infrastructure (railroads etc) in the 19th century was made by a company called East India Company. I wonder how that Company got its wealth.
Tiggs, Try to be bitter next week. The Dems took control of the Hill today. Let’s bask in that.
Sorry, Abhi! So blinded by your shimmering uberbloginess, I neglected to mention you.
Thanks, Al Mujahid.
Now about what PKS said (#83):
I sort of agree…it would be like us reclaiming the word ‘coolie’ or something…which I don’t think any of us want to do. But macaca is ok too, because it’s taken as a joke. Some of my non SM-reading desi friends do use it from time to time, and we all get a kick out of it.
but the only people using “macaca” are the assorted desi sluts and desi pimps and desi mujahids here at SM. unfortunately, these jokers who clamor to be known as brown(nosers) are setting a loser agenda for Indians in the US. when was the last time some chinese guy begged to called yellow or grouped with the southeast asian Jemaah Islamiyah.
Aww, nothing puts a spring in my step in the mornin’ like being called a desi slut 🙂 Cheers maratha…
So now that we know what the girls are, which one are you, the pimp or the mujahid?
Now I would say those two terms are interchangeable, but you know better don’t you… go on don’t be shy, claim your own label.
Tze Ming Mok, NZ writer and blogger has a blog called Yellow Peril – http://www.publicaddress.net/yellow peril
and… http://www.littleyellowdifferent.com/ – better stay away from that one buddy it’s a gay and lesbian blog. You don’t wanna catch the same bug the gaylove that’s gonna be spreading through your House of Representatives and Senate… 😉
and…(now this title is my favourite)….
http://yellowpride.com/
Maybe you don’t like the word macaca, but that doesn’t mean that people who do choose to reclaim and discuss it and use it don’t have pride and aren’t something more that those 3 classy alternative labels you chose for us.
I know you didn’t beg for this label but here’s one for ya anyway: F*&%tard 🙂 Now I hope I made your day as bright and cheery as mine…
I admire you Tash. His comment was so ignorant I didn’t have the energy to even respond.
Obscene lack of gratitude on the part of too many desis on this point. Desis were classified as coloureds in the pre-Civil Rights era, and subject to all the issues that blacks were. As a non-white minority you owe your current rights as a full-fledged american citizen to the black civil rights movement. If you don’t see the logic in that, then perhaps you need to retake logic 101.
BTW, Martin Luther King Jr himself was inspired by the non-violent Gandhian movement of India. Notice the desi caps the black civil rights revolutionaries wore.
But of course. Only the ungrateful and logically challenged would deny that. 🙂
BTW, the men who gave us that Secular Enlightened Constitution would be appalled at the outrageous claims of the lying republican hijackers that America was founded as a christian nation. The American Republic was founded as a rejection of both monarchy and theocracy. This point needs to be drilled deep into the thick skulls of all the bible-thumping, rabble-rousing, ignoramuses who constitute the core constituency of the right wing.
And we shouldn’t forget that macaca-gate was the turning point for the Allen-Webb race, which is a turning point for the Democrats gaining majority in the Senate, which could help the Democrats build up momentum for the 2008 election.
I know there are many other factors, and I don’t want to give desis too much credit, but Macacagate was the point at which the balance tipped over, and I think we should be proud that a desi was involved in that
In addition to the examples Tash provides, there’s Yellow by law professor Frank Wu, which among other things makes a strong case for inter-ethnic solidarity of the type we pimps, sluts and mujahids profess, and “maratha” sneers on. Too bad, he might learn something from reading it.
Glad to see Allen concede. SM needs a pat on the back. How much the macacagate influenced the end result of Dems taking the control of the senate, we will never know. We can always gloat that it’s us.
Good job, Tash. Maratha badly needed it and you stuck it to him.
Cheers.