I read a column where the author said, "We are engaged in a struggle between freedom and the forces of terror, my little macacas, and I mostly side with freedom."

I thought I vaguely knew what "macacas" meant, but then when I looked it up I got confused. Is it a slur? That would seem out of context for how I saw it being used.

I believe the columnist is referring to this incident in which Senator George Allen (R-Virginia) called a spectator "macaca".

All the late night comicnews guys (Jon Stewart) have made a lot of great use of this slip-up.

It was caught on film by the Indian(?), the same one who was called Macaca, and he posted in on YouTube, where it quickly became popular, leading to its pickup by The Daily Show.

Well, if you're correct, neveu, Garrison Keillor didn't make it obvious.

It doesn't seem like a slur when used by Keillor in that editorial. It did seem like a slur when used by Allen.

You know, at the library we sometimes give little nicknames to some of our regular customers when we don't know their real names (and sometimes when we do). I generally don't do that because I think that some staff might use those nicknames in the public area and slip the practice to our customers, which would be terrible.

If this senator is to believed, he didn't realise that calling someone a macaca can be seen as a slur; in fact, he didn't know what it meant. This fact alone seems to show that he's not a suitable candidate for an important office. If he's not to believed ... remember the man is a politician.

I had never heard macaca before, but it sounds like a racial slur, and I certainly wouldn't use a potential racial slur without verifying its meaning.

quote:

If this senator is to believed, he didn't realise that calling someone a macaca can be seen as a slur;

I don't know...what do you think, fellow Americans? I am not sure any senator is to be believed.

I believe a few: McCain, Obama, Clinton, even Specter (whom I hated for years after the Anita Hill incident, but lately he seems fairly reasonable.) Many of the rest are pretty unbelievable, it's true.

It is my humble and very sad opinion that once a person has risen to such a political height as to be a Senator, they can no longer be trusted to tell the truth or to have integrity.

quote:

It is my humble and very sad opinion that once a person has risen to such a political height as to be a Senator, they can no longer be trusted to tell the truth or to have integrity.

It is my belief that their self-serving and frequently dishonest behaviour is the reaon why they have reached such exhalted heights. Why expect them to change the habits of a lifetime?

quote:

It is my belief that their self-serving and frequently dishonest behaviour is the reaon why they have reached such exhalted heights. Why expect them to change the habits of a lifetime?

Exactly my point, RE, but much better stated. Thank you.

So what's a macaca

Dale,

Neveu posted this link in his post.

So he did
]
In my own defense, I had in fact accessed Nev's link, but in scanning it my pointer inadvertently slipped out of the scroll bar and so I thought the article had concluded after only a couple of paragraphs