- September 25th, 2006, 11:21 pm
#31835
ASOR Technical Advisor and Graphics Consultant
here's one for those of you who follow George Allen- BTW, I'm making NO judgement on the man- I know NOTHING about him.
(Its from the NY Times, so take that for what you will)
Senator Accused of Using Racially Charged Term
(Its from the NY Times, so take that for what you will)
Senator Accused of Using Racially Charged Term
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: September 25, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 — Two acquaintances of Senator George Allen of Virginia said today that he had used racially inflammatory language in the 1970’s and 1980’s, compounding allegations of racial insensitivity that have dogged his re-election campaign since he referred to a young Indian-American as “macaca” a few weeks ago. Mr. Allen said he had never used the language attributed to him by the acquaintances.
Christopher Taylor, an anthropology professor at Alabama University in Birmingham, Ala., said that in the early 1980’s he heard Mr. Allen use an inflammatory epithet for African Americans. Mr. Taylor, who is white and was then a graduate student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said the term came up in a conversation about the turtles in a pond near Mr. Allen’s property. According to Mr. Taylor, Mr. Allen said that “around here” only the African Americans — whom he referred to by the epithet — “eat ‘em.”
Separately, Dr. Ken Shelton, a former football teammate of Mr. Allen’s at the University of Virginia who is white, said that in college in the early 1970’s Mr. Allen had used the same term often. Dr. Shelton said Mr. Allen had told him that he moved to Virginia “because the blacks know their place.”
Dr. Shelton, a radiologist now living in North Carolina, said that on a hunting trip Mr. Allen had sought out the home of an African American and affixed the head of a dead deer to the mailbox. And Dr. Shelton said Mr. Allen had also called him “wizard” after Robert Shelton, who used the title “wizard” as a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
“He wanted to know if I was related,” Dr. Shelton recalled in an interview. “I said, ‘No.’ ”
Dr. Shelton’s account was first reported Sunday night by the online news magazine Salon.
Mr. Allen, a Virginia Republican who has been considered a frontrunner for the party’s 2008 presidential nomination, vigorously denied Dr. Shelton’s allegations; Mr. Allen and his campaign did not immediately respond to questions about Mr. Taylor’s account.
In an interview with reporters and editors of The Associated Press before Mr. Taylor came forward, Mr. Allen called Dr. Shelton’s recollections “ludicrously false” and said he had never used such racist terms.
“The story and his comments and assertions in there are completely false,” Mr. Allen said, according to The A.P. “I don’t remember ever using that word and it is absolutely false that that was ever part of my vocabulary.”
Mr. Allen’s campaign distributed statements in his defense from three other former college football teammates and his former trainer. The three players said Mr. Allen never used racist slurs. And two players and the trainer said Dr. Shelton’s nickname “wizard” was inspired by his magician-like football skills.
“It appears to me that Kenny Shelton has some deep-rooted problems with his self-identity and a rather hyperactive imagination,” George Korte, a former teammate, said in his statement.
Until a few weeks ago, Mr. Allen was well ahead in his re-election campaign, in which he faces James Webb, an author and former secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration who is running as a Democrat.
But insinuations about his racial sensitivity have hovered around his campaign since The New Republic reported in April that Mr. Allen had worn a Confederate flag pin in his high school yearbook picture. And two odd episodes in recent weeks have spurred new questions about his attitudes, slashed his lead in at least one poll and inspired more than a few jokes.
The first occurred when Mr. Allen referred to a young Democratic operative of Indian-American descent as “macaca” and welcomed him to America. Liberals called the term a racist slur derived from the name of a species of monkey. Mr. Allen apologized for any offense and said he had just made it up.
A few weeks later, Mr. Allen, who is Presbyterian, grew angry at a reporter’s question about whether his mother was Jewish. Mr. Allen said later that after receiving the question his mother had told him for the first time that her family was Jewish. And his subsequent statements about the revelation — attesting that he still ate ham sandwiches, for example — appeared stumbling or embarrassed, even to some sympathetic Republicans.
“His mishandling of a name-calling incident, and his ham-handed denial and subsequent revelation that his mother was raised Jewish, have almost eliminated him from the field of serious presidential candidates and even jeopardized his Senate seat,” Michael Continetti of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine wrote in its current cover article, “George Allen Monkeys Around.”
Mr. Taylor, the Alabama professor, said he was “kind of taken aback” by Mr. Allen’s language because it was their first meeting and Mr. Allen knew he was talking to a graduate student in anthropology. “Most of us are antiracist,” Mr. Taylor said.
Still, Mr. Taylor said, he did not give Mr. Allen “a moral lesson.” Mr. Taylor said he had come to pick up an Australian shepherd puppy and left with the dog.
JLFJR wrote:Thanks for your input, PA! Very helpful.
ASOR Technical Advisor and Graphics Consultant
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