Allen's 'Macaca' Comment Enrages APA Groups
Critics are condemning Sen. George Allen’s comments about a rival’s campaign
staffer as offensive and racist. The Virginia Republican called S.R. Sidarth, a volunteer on Democrat Jim Webb’s campaign, a “Macaca” on two occasions during a recent GOP rally at Breaks, Va., near the Kentucky border.
“This fellow over here with the yellow shirt — Macaca or whatever his name is — he’s with my opponent,” Allen said. “He’s following us around everywhere.’’
Sidarth, 20, was videotaping the event for Webb.
Macaca is a genus of monkeys including macaques, but Allen said he just made up a word that sounds similar to “Mohawk,” a nickname Allen staffers gave Sidarth because of his partially cropped hair. But critics are calling it a racist dig at someone of Indian descent.
Sen. Allen has since apologized to Sidarth personally after numerous news outlets ran the story.
Congressman Mike Honda, the Democratic National Committee vice chairman, called for an apology.
“The offensive and racially-tinged comments made by Sen. George Allen have no place in our political debate, and have even less of a place in this great country of ours,” said Honda in a statement.
Allen, who is positioning himself for a possible presidential run in 2008, has said he apologizes to Sidarth if he took any offense and has met with Indian American political leaders. Members of the U.S. Indian Political Action Committee (PAC) said they have received hundreds of e-mails about Allen’s comments.
The furor also is a blow to Allen’s recent efforts to repair the damage caused by previous accusations of racial insensitivity. He wore a Confederate flag pin in his high school yearbook photo and used to keep a Confederate flag in his living room and a noose in his law office.
Allen has said he has since grown. Last year, he co-sponsored a Senate resolution apologizing for the body’s failure to pass anti-lynching legislation.
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