Monty Python to the contrary, ritual idioting is not solely the province of those who play cricket.
We have plenty of idiocy to go around on this side of the pond, thank you very much.
The most recent examples, from both sides of the aisle, as it were, of which I am aware are: (1) US Senator George Allen, R-Va., calling the only person of color at a Republican rally "Macaca," and (2) Andrew Young, civil rights leader and erstwhile improver of Wal-Mart's public image, implying it's OK for Wal-Mart to drive out the "mom and pop" grocery stores, because the Jews, Koreans, and Arabs who run those "mom and pop" stores have ripped off blacks long enough.
What makes Allen's remark so heinous is that he knew the man who was its object would get the point. For Allen's remark is common slur used by French Tunisians, of whom Allen's mother is one descendant. And Allen's comment's object, one S.R. Sidarth, though born and raised in Virginia, is himself of East Indian descent. He was at the rally to videotape it for Allen's Democratic challenger in the senate race, one James Webb.
Worse, Allen has since claimed that (a) he didn't know what the word meant; (b) he fumbled saying the word "mohawk" as he was really referring to Sidarth's haircut [which technically wasn't even a Mohawk to begin with.--Ed]; and (c) that he's really sorry if Sidarth took offense, as none was intended.
Note that he never once apologized for making the remark in the first place. Further, Allen's audience at the rally seemed to appreciate greatly his use of the slur. So the rich white guys are still speaking in code to attempt to keep the rest of us cowed and so intimidated that we let them get away with their @$$%*&*^&@#@#.
Not that what Young said was any better. Wal-Mart promptly distanced itself from his remarks [if nothing else, Wal-Mart does understand the larger implications of bad marketing.--Ed] and Young had the decency to resign his position as head of Working Families for Wal-Mart. The AP report I read said Young had apologized for the remarks, but since what he said as apology was NOT printed, I have no idea whether Young acknowledged the wrongness of the stereotypes those remarks promulgated. Indeed, from what the AP article did say, I have my doubts. Young was quoted as saying "[t]hings that are matter-of-fact in Atlanta, in the New York and Los Angeles environments tend to be a lot more volatile." First, I'm not sure the racism in Atlanta that Young's quote suggests is true. Second, I'm quite sure that Young's statement also implies he thinks what he said was true, and not offensive in and of itself.
I'm no fan of political correctness, but I do believe in courtesy and accuracy. Young's original remarks were tactless and not necessarily accurate, especially when you consider the additional things he said, to wit: that the "mom and pop" stores deliberately overcharged black customers, and sold bad meat, stale bread, and wilted vegetables.
I'm not even going to get into the whole subject of whether a civil rights leader should have anything to do with a huge corporation that pays the absolute minimum in wages and benefits that it legally can get away with paying, and which goes out of its way to stifle all employee attempts to unionize.
Has air pollution wrecked our collective ability to think clearly? The whole world lately seems to think that if someone shouts something loudly enough and long enough, that makes it true, even when it most definitely is not.
One more example of that wrongheadedness is Dubya's insistence in the face of a federal judge's ruling to the contrary that his warrantless wiretap program passes Constitutional muster. I'm so sick of Dubya's take on the whole subject that I can't even address it rationally anymore, beyond crying out the warning once more that our very system of government, of putting laws before men, is in great danger . . . and I don't mean from terrorists, whether they are Islamo-fascists or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment