Wadhams said Allen campaign staffers had begun calling Sidarth "mohawk" because of a haircut Wadhams said the Webb staffer has. "Macaca was just a variation of that," Wadhams said.
Is that so? I did a little digging to see how about this relationship and found a few things...
...the distinctive monkey with mohawk-style hair was declared as a member of a new genus in 2006
The Berber's hair, trimmed at the nape,
Looked all right, but his beard made him gape.
Seems the barber he chose
Whacked out barbarous rows;
'Twas a shear-wielding Barbary ape.
Etymology links Berbers, who settled North Africa's Barbary Coast, with locally indigenous Barbary apes (Macaca sylvana), and all things barbarous, an adjective which derives from the Greek barbaros, meaning "non-Greek-speaking," "foreign," or "ignorant." The unrelated word barber stems from the Latin barba, or "beard," no matter how barbarous your haircut looks.
There's a lot that matches macaca to monkey, but I'm not having any luck matching macaca to mohawk. Except for the cases where the monkey's hairstyle was described as "mohawk". Perhaps Dick or one of his followers could show us where the term macaca is commonly used for mohawk.
In context, however, Allen's comments are much more obviously racist than that ambiguous term. The fact is George Allen saw a darker-skinned person, and had the nerve to welcome him to "America" and "the real world."
Apparently he thinks "real Americans" are white. A darker-skinned person is presumptively not American. And if a person is not American, George "Bush" Allen might as well make up a name for them - no reason to try to remember a name unless its anglophonic.
Read the discussion over at DK. Several people have noted that the "m" word is not just a little bit racist - its very, very racist. Its been called a literal "fighting" word.
So the word itself would outrage many, while the video will make clear to the rest that Allen was race-baiting.
I agree the burden is on Allen - until then and even after, we should make sure everyone sees that video. Lucky for us, its linked onto the Washington Post article.
Well, Senator? We're waiting...
So they do owe an explanation because the one they gave just ain't right.