Macaca

a racial slur used by senator george allen, which literally means “monkey.” recently used by the senator while campaigning in virginia.
while campaigning, senator george allen made the following remark about one of his const-tuents — an indian american uva student who was born and raised in virginia, who was filming the event: “this fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. he’s with my opponent… lets give a welcome to macaca, here. welcome to america and the real world of virginia.”
common french racist slur. meaning and use is similar to english ‘n-gg-r,’ and is used to described non-european (arab and black) north africans. it was in particularly prevelant use during french occupation of northern africa. the term has been showing up with increasing frequency as a racial slur on racist websites and chatrooms.

in considering the controvery of whether senator george allen truly knew the meaning of the word in his infamous august 11, 2006 outburst, it is significant to note that his mother and numerous relatives are ethnic french expatriates of tunisia in north africa.
“this fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. he’s with my opponent. he’s following us around everywhere. and it’s just great . . . let’s give a welcome to macaca, here. welcome to america and the real world of virginia.” — sen george allen refering to s.d. sidarth while campaingning in rural virginia, ausgust 20006.
the following is a post election update

(n) a virulent racial pejorative, common in europe, that was obscure in the us until it burst upon the scene during the 2006 senate elections. the term, the equivalent of “n-gg-r” (a macaque is a monkey genus) is used primarily in france, especially among former colonizers in north africa, to describe any person of color, most notably moslems. when sen. george allen used the term to signal out a young man of indian descent in the crowd for derision, a firestorm hit that directly tipped the balance of power in the us senate. allen, a former shoo-in (and until then considered a presidential candidate), was defeated in a very tight election, ensuring a 51-49 democratic control of the senate.
from yaho news, nov 9, 2006:

in the virginia race, allen had been expected to cruise to a second term this year and make a run for the white house in 2008. the son of a hall of fame football coach, allen served as governor in the 1990s and was popular for abolishing parole and inst-tuting other conservative reforms.

but in webb he faced an unconventional challenger. supporters drafted webb, a political neophyte, to run because of his early opposition to the iraq war.

allen, 54, was comfortably ahead in polls until august, when he mockingly referred to a webb campaign volunteer of indian descent as “macaca,” regarded by some as a racial slur. the incident, caught on videotape, became international news. some former football teammates from the university of virginia also charged that allen had commonly used a slur for blacks.
republican for goodbye
mr allen said macaca to congress.
according to daily show correspondent rob cordry, macaca is a small european country, whose inhabitants “never look back”, they are so happy to leave.
stewart: “where exactly is macaca?”
cordry: “right next to ya pee-pee”
the second largest genus of the order primate. the largest being the h-m- genus which includes the sapiens species (you and me).
excuse me sir but my taxonomy is off a bit. do you know the genus of that monkey over there?

why yes…i belive it is of the genus macaca.
originally a racial slur used by belgian congolese to refer to native (black) congolese, it became infamous after virgina senator george allen used it in reference a to a u.s. citizen of indian (meaning from india) decent filming his campaign for a rival politician(from macaque a genre of monkeys)
he called the guy macaca and blew all his chances at politics.

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