George Allen used the word “Macaca” to describe a member of the opposition’s staff who was following him around, videotaping everything he said. He was expected to know that it “is a pejorative epithet used by francophone colonialists in Central Africa‘s Belgian Congo for the native population.[2] “
He says he didn’t. I believe him. It still cost him the Senate race and to this day many consider him a racist for using it.
Did you know it was racist? Had you ever heard of it before? Not even as a racist term, but the word? I hadn’t.
I do know, however, that an “oreo” is a racist term. I means someone who is black on the outside and white on the inside. It’s used to describe black conservatives. Bananas? Yellow on the outside and white on the inside, used to describe Asians who “act white.”
And coconuts. Brown on the outside, white on the inside. A racial slur used against Hispanics who act white.
Marco Rubio is a Cuban. He is conservative.
Donny Deutsch called him a coconut on The Joy Behar Show, and she didn’t bat an eye:
Here’s the transcript, courtesy of Newsbusters:
DEUTSCH: We’re such a media frenzy, 24/7 world that almost anybody that’s been around too long, there’s so much “no” attached to it, that you almost need that blank piece of paper. That’s the new model. Like, you know, this coconut Rubio down in Florida. You know-
BEHAR: What’s his name? I don’t know him. Rubio?
DEUTSCH: Marco Rubio. He’s running against Charlie Crist, who I think has done a great job. And he is the new great, you now, hope down there.
BEHAR: So, basically, these people, the tea partiers are basically angry with the right and the left for the same reason, that there’s fiscal irresponsibility?
DEUTSCH: No, they’re angry- they’re basically- their argument is- and I think there’s a lot of racism underneath it- is- “He, they, are taking your civil liberties away. They’re stomping on the Constitution. They’re telling us how many bullets we can have in our guns.”
Deutch has responded on his Twitter page, claiming he meant “simple, goofy, bananas…wasn’t even aware it could be a racially charged word.” Marco Rubio isn’t “goofy.” But he is a Cuban American. He is brown on the outside.
If we are to believe that George Allen is a racist because he used a racial slur “used by francophone colonialists in Central Africa‘s Belgian Congo for the native population,” then should we not believe that Donny Deutsch is a racist as well? At least the slur he used is commonly know in America.
And what about Joy Behar? The racist comment was made to her. Isn’t she complicit in the racism? She let it go unchallenged. She sat there and said nothing.
Where is the outcry from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus? Do they not care when Cuban Americans are slurred, as long as they are Republicans?
It’s as if there are two sets of standards, one for people who hold conservative values, and another for those who say things like “Obama has no Negro dialect” or “Gandhi ran a gas station in St. Louis.”
But that can’t be right? Can it?
