Monday, September 25, 2006

Senator Allen Gets into More Trouble

It's hard to believe that some people take Senator Allen seriously as a potential president of the United States. His 'macaca' comment has forced him to come up with multiple and contradictory explanations which does not put him in a good light. Now there are other charges about the language that Senator Allen uses; here's the story from The New York Times:
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.”

Maybe it's time for Republicans to turn their backs on radical conservatives. Our country has moved on to the 21st century and there are problems we need to start solving together.

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