Like many of you, I'd never heard of the word and didn't think much of it, until I read what Jeffrey Feldman wrote in his Frameshop blog, "Yesterday, when the news broke that George Allen called someone at a campaign stop a 'macaca,' I did some Google searches to find out what it meant. As it turns out, the question is not if 'macaca' is a racist term, but which of the three definitions of the word 'macaca' did George Allen intend when he used it?"
It turns out that the word means the same thing in a number of languages:
- 'Macaque' - French : racist slang; a dismissive epithet used by Francophone colonials in Africa for native populations of North and Subsaharan Africans, similar to the English word 'nigger.'
- 'Macaca' - English : racist slang; similar to the word 'nigger', used to describe Arabs.
- 'Macaca' - English : racist slang; used by American white supremacists in 'insider' talk about African-Americans.
plez sez: While standing before a group of his ardent supporters, George Allen shows his true colors!
This is the same George Allen who stirred controversy as governor of Virginia by issuing a proclamation noting the South's celebration of Confederate History Month without the mention of slavery. Now, he goes on the campaign trail using a veiled and racist code word to refer to a person of color, basically calling him a nigger to his face.
Fifty years ago, it's obvious that George Allen would be leading a lynch mob. This isn't the type of man who should leading a state, or righting laws, or - heaven forbid - running this country. It is time for the people of Virginia to send this yokel back to where he came from!