WASHINGTON, Aug 23: US President George Bush plans to raise money for a Republican lawmaker who recently drew fire for using what some have charged is an ethnic slur against a volunteer of Indian descent.
Senator George Allen of Virginia raised eyebrows earlier this month when he referred to S.R. Sidarth, a 20-year-old college student volunteering for the campaign of Allen’s opponent, as ‘macaca’.
Macaca is the Latin name for a type of monkey found in North Africa and Southeast Asia, and in some European cultures is considered a racial slur against African immigrants.
“He has apologised,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino replied when asked whether Mr Bush had any reservations about raising money for Senator Allen, who is also expected to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.
“It is in all of our best interests, and as we work in politics and we want to improve the tone and the discourse, that when apologies are offered, that they are accepted. And so the president will be going to the fundraiser tonight and appearing with Allen,” said Perino.
In a videotape that spread like wildfire over the Internet, Mr Allen took issue at campaign rally with Sidarth, who has been tailing him everywhere with a video camera at the behest of the Republican’s rival.
“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,” Mr Allen said.
“Let’s give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia,” Mr Allen said.
His aides initially said he was riffing on Sidarth’s haircut, which appears from some published photographs to be a modified ‘mohawk’ in which the sides are shaved, though it has also been described as a mullet — short on top, long in the back.
The senator himself, in a statement released on his campaign’s official Internet site, later charged that the media had ‘greatly misunderstood’ his comments and denied that they were racially loaded.
Mr Allen said he had ‘made up a nickname for the cameraman, which was in no way intended to be racially derogatory. Any insinuations to the contrary are completely false’.
“I never want to embarrass or demean anyone and I apologise if my comments offended this young man,” Mr Allen said.—AFP