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August 13, 2009

George Allen Offers Yet Another Explanation for Macaca: "Alliteration"

The Washington Post describes a "humble" George Allen's effort to rehabilitate his image for reentry into the public sphere. Along the way, Allen offers yet another, in the long list of ever-shifting explanations for the term:

"It was alliteration or something," he says. "I don't know the word. I should not have called him anything aside from the fellow in the yellow shirt. . . . It was a mistake. That was not intended to insult anyone. It's not my nature. I'm a generally jovial, happy person. Nonetheless, it was a mistake on my part and I apologize for it even if it was unintentional."

The alliteration hunt here might make for a good, if frustrating, third grade exercise:

Looking at Sidarth, Allen said: "This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent... Let's give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."

My favorite of the earlier explanations (which are helpfully cataloged here by Media Matters, in their full dizzying glory):

Allen said he made the name up, then said he recalled that he had a niece nicknamed 'Maca Maca.' " [Los Angeles Times;8/24/06]

Apparently, Allen happened to alliterate--twice--in referring to the Indian-American Virginian college student.
 
The Washington Post photograph of Allen in his office accompanying its story has a poster with the word "Consistency" proudly emblazoned. 

Posted by Anupam Chander on August 13, 2009 at 01:57 PM in Globalization | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack