The Virginia Senate Race and the Ugly Nature of the Mainstream Press

First off, before I begin -- I'm a supporter of Senator George Allen. I don't know if he's a future President, but he's one heck of a good Senator and represents my state very well. I have contributed money to his campaigns in the past and continue to do so today.

And I'm utterly disgusted by the mainstream media for their coverage of the Allen-Webb race.

Let's start with background here -- if you're not already aware of it, Allen got into trouble last month when he referred to a young Indian-American staffer for his opponent by the term "macaca." Being Indian-American myself, I'd never heard the term before (and trust me, I've been subjected to racial taunts that are stunningly creative... and not so creative, like "Slurpee jockey"). Apparently it's been decided that this constitutes a racial insult (we'll discuss who's injecting race into the story in a minute).

My view is that it was a dumb comment by Allen, but I tend to believe that he has no idea what macaca means -- he was looking for a short-hand way to mock the guy working for the other campaign, and picked a term he'd heard somewhere or made one up. It's stupid and a case of bad judgment, but we tend to forgive politicians for bad judgment in this country -- if we can forgive a guy for playing hide the cigar with an intern while he's the subject of a sexual harassment suit, we should be able to forgive someone for trying to call someone else a moron and using a term some people find offensive.

When the story first happened, I didn't pay much attention. But reading it now, I see the following point within the article...

Asked what macaca means, Allen said: "I don't know what it means." He said the word sounds similar to "mohawk," a term that his campaign staff had nicknamed Sidarth because of his haircut. Sidarth said his hairstyle is a mullet -- tight on top, long in the back.

Allen said that by the comment welcoming him to America, he meant: "Just to the real world. Get outside the Beltway and get to the real world."

But the apology, which came hours after Allen's campaign manager dismissed the issue with an expletive and insisted the senator has "nothing to apologize for," did little to mollify Webb's campaign or Sidarth, who said he suspects Allen singled him out because his was the only nonwhite face among about 100 Republican supporters.

Leave aside the lack of taste for anyone to be wearing a mullet who doesn't play hockey (granted, that's probably an unfair generalization -- Sidarth may play hockey, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't do it professionally, and mullets are best left to Canadians in the NHL who know what they're doing). But I find it interesting that this guy decides the reason he's singled out is because he's the only nonwhite in the room. Maybe the reason he's being singled out was because he's the guy working for Allen's opponent?

This is the sort of hyper-sensitivity that drives me nuts, and I'm a minority. If you're the only non-white guy in the room, believe it or not, you're (a) not the center of attention and (b) not being subjected to stares by every white person in the room. As someone who's been in countless gatherings where I'm the only non-white person, I've come to the conclusion that the only reason 99% of the white people might look at me a moment longer than expected stems from a wish that they had a tan like mine. Or that they're glad that they have better hair than me.

Getting away from that... this controversy was bound to have some legs, since Allen is running in Virginia and the national media is nearby in DC (granted, thanks to the traffic on I-66, they may be several hours away). Allen and Webb had a debate in Tyson's Corner Monday night, not far from my home. And here's the opening question from Peggy Fox of WUSA-TV...

Senator Allen, you have said several times that you made up the word macaca when referring to S.R. Sidarth, the young man of Indian heritage born and raised in Fairfax County who attends your alma mater. But word is a racial slur in French-influenced African nations, most notably Tunisia. Your mother's Tunisian--are you sure you never heard the word and if you were just making up a name, to call Sidarth, why not just call him John, something that--rather than something that sounds derogatory. Was it because he looked different?

Let me state this categorically -- if some reporter or anyone else decided to call my mother a racist, which is basically what I read into this question, I'd probably step down off the podium and ask them to step outside. That's probably why I'm not a politician. Allen handled it much better, as you can see from this part of his answer...

I hope you're not trying to bring my mother into this matter. I have said, and I'll say it once again, I made a mistake. It was a thoughtless moment. I have apologized for it, as well I should. I had never heard that word before, from my mother or from anyone else. If I had any idea that in some parts of the world, for some cultures, that this would be an insult, I would never use that word, because that's not who I am, that's not how I was raised, it's not what I believe in.

Whether it was from my father's football teams, where he had people from all different parts of the country and different backgrounds--you don't care about, on football teams or on sports teams what someone's race or religion is or ethnicity is, all you care about is whether they can help the team compete and succeed. And that's the meritocracy that we should aspire to in our country. And if there's one lesson that I learned more than from anyone else it was my mother, whose father was incarcerated by the Nazis in World War II. And of all people in my life who told me about tolerance and not judging people by their religious beliefs or their ethnicity or their race, it is my mother.

Basically, Allen is telling Fox, in a gentlemanly way, "Don't bring my mom into this." And I think this is a country where most of understand that sentiment, for two reasons. First, most of us love our parents, and making fun of someone's parents, particularly their mother, constitute fighting words. Second, as a more important matter, we're a country where we're not judged according to the characters and actions of our parents, but our own character and actions. Trying to ascribe guilt to someone because of the sins (whether real or fabricated) of their parents or ancestors is un-American. In this country, we want people to be able to make their own way in life, whether they're the son of a President or the son of a convict (whether that happens is a different issue).

All of this makes Allen's response to Fox's unseemly question the right one. And it leaves me stunned at the follow up question...

Following the macaca episode, the Jewish press published a story on the internet that explored your possible Jewish ancestry on your mother's side. You've been quoted as saying your mother's not Jewish, but it had been reported her father, your grandfather Felix, whom you were given your middle name for, was Jewish. Could you please tell us whether your forbearers include Jews, and if so, at which point Jewish identity might have ended?

Seriously, what the hell was Fox thinking????

The audience started booing, and I don't blame them one bit. This is probably the result of poor phrasing on her part, but that last question almost sounds like something coming out a World War II movie. It almost sounds like she wants Allen to tell her what percentage of his blood is Jewish.

Someone needs to explain to me why it's relevant that Allen might have ancestors who were Jewish. On any level, this question is offensive, ridiculous in the extreme and thoughtless. It reminds me of John Kerry's reference to Dick Cheney's daughter during the third Presidential debate, which Kerry spokesperson Mary Beth Cahill characterized as "fair game." Theoretically, at least, Kerry's reference was relevant to answering a question about gay marriage, even though it was unseemly and dead wrong.

Is this a big issue on which the Senate campaign should turn? No, and neither is the flap over macaca (I still have no clue how to spell that word). But the Washington Post has now run two days of articles about this story, with a page 2 story Tuesday and a front page piece today. There are some who wonder if this hurts the Allen campaign, since some reports characterized him as defensive about his grandfather's background (the video of the debate and the transcript contradict that in my opinion). But I'm betting that this issue hurts Jim Webb, Allen's opponent, because it transforms Allen from some sort of closet racist into a bit of a victim.

Put it this way -- if and when I have a son someday, let's say he runs for political office. There's a chance he could be asked a similar question, since he would be coming from a mixed-race background that also includes three major religions. I'm hoping he'd be just as indignant about being asked to explain when his bloodline stopped being Hindu or Jewish or Catholic or whatever.

And Allen's statement nails the point...

"The notion peddled by the [James] Webb campaign that I am somehow embarrassed by my heritage is equally offensive, and also absurd.

"I was raised as a Christian and my mother was raised as a Christian. And I embrace and take great pride in every aspect of my diverse heritage, including my Lumbroso family line's Jewish heritage, which I learned about from a recent magazine article and my mother confirmed.

..."Some may find it odd that I have not probed deeply into the details of my family history, but it's a fact. We in the Allen household were simply taught that what matters is a person's character, integrity, effort, and performance -- not race, gender, ethnicity or religion. And so whenever we would ask my mother through the years about our family background on her side, the answer always was, 'Who cares about that?'

I wish this would shame the mainstream media. But I tend to doubt it.