http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/08/16/allen.volunteer/index.html

Virginian Senator George Allen is denying that his remarks about an opponent's campaign worker were racist.  The campaign worker in question, SR Sidarth, actually filmed Sen. Allen making the remarks not once, but twice!!  Further, Sen. Allen says he did not mean to offend Sidarth when he called him "Macaca" on both occasions.  He stipulates that he just made up a "nickname" for Sidarth, whose job was to film Allen where ever he went.   I'm sure that most intelligent, logical people can already poke holes in that statement.  At the very least I think that all sides can agree that Sen. Allen wasn't trying to be nice when he called Sidarth "Macaca."  If Allen wasn't trying to be racist when he basically equated Sidarth to a monkey, he wasn't trying to be complimentary either.   Sidarth, himself, hit the nail on the head - Allen was trying to point out to a nearly 100% white audience the lone minority, lone outsider. 

What gets me is that Allen continues to deny that what he said was derogatory.  Racist, maybe not, though I would argue it was, but he meant to make an uncomplimentary statement about Sidarth, he meant to single him out and he meant to ridicule him. 

I don't understand how politicians in this day and age continue to blunder through the race issue.  It seems at least once a month, either directly or indirectly, some senator or congressperson is making a racist remark.  And they tend to be republican.  I believe one politician, in reference to video games violence and their causal effect on violence in general, made a comment that upper middle class, educated kids aren't effected in the same way.  i.e. if you are poor, non-white child, you shouldn't play violent games because you may become a gang member some day because of it.  But if you are a white child of privilege living in the suburbs, you can play these games all you want and not harm a living soul. 

And people believe and follow these morons.  They give white people the racist face that minorities think they have.  That's how all white people in the US get labeled "The MAN" the oppressor of all others.  Is that right? No, but it's how it happens.  Hopefully this will be less and less the case as blogs and the like become more prevelant and more widely read as people see that stereotypes are just gross generalizations.  That people will be seen as individuals and not as a part of a particular group. 

Some days I wonder if that is just a pipe dream.