Salon.com's Person of the Year: S.R. Sidarth
Time magazine's person of the year has become something of a media phenomenon in and of itself. Forget the fact that the increasingly irrelevant "news magazine" is heading the same direction that Life went a generation ago, its annual coronation of some lucky individual is still enough to sell a few copies and generate a small amount of buzz. The magazine took a noticeable nosedive in 2001, however, when they decided to make Rudy Giuliani person of the year, despite the fact that the title is meant to be bestowed on the most influential person of that past year, who (even if you hate him, his impact can't be denied) unquestionably should have been Osama bin Laden for orchestrating the 9/11 attacks. Since then it has been getting worse, reaching what may be its nadir with this year's cover, depicting "You," complete with a mirror-image computer monitor, the savvy net user, as the person of the year.
Though it may be a bit premature, I'm predicting this issue marks the end of what little impact Time magazine still has on the world, and hopefully we can all move onward to better things. Certainly others are trying, and Salon.com makes an impressive case for another person of the year: S. R. Sidarth. The man who brought the term "macaca" into the vernacular, and brought down a giant of a Republican politician, significantly changing the political landscape of the country.
Sidarth is right that the macaca incident played a pivotal role in the election. It just may not be the role he imagined. Sidarth wants to believe it means the race card is losing its potency in the rural South. Pundits wonder about the long-term implications of homemade, unfiltered, viral webcasts on political campaigns. But the real message of macaca may have been the kid behind the camera.
Jim Webb eked out a statewide victory on the basis of massive margins in the booming suburbs of northern Virginia. Macaca and all the missteps that followed helped convince voters in these affluent, well-educated and increasingly diverse zip codes outside Washington that they had grown tired of George Allen. But the same voters may also have recognized Sidarth, born and raised in northern Virginia, a straight-A student at a state college and a member of the local Hindu temple, as their neighbor. Allen was just a California transplant with dip and cowboy boots who had glommed on to the ancient racial quirks of his adopted home. Sidarth was the kid next door. He, not Allen, was the real Virginian. He was proof that every hour his native commonwealth drifts further from the orbit of the GOP's solid South and toward a day when Allen's act will be a tacky antique. Allen was the past, Sidarth is the wired, diverse futureof Virginia, the political process and the country.
The excerpt is a helpful summation but the entire article is short, readable, and worth taking a look at. The "macaca" incident took place in late summer, when support for Bush and Iraq war was sliding but hadn't landed in the garbage just yet. Republicans were still cautiously optimistic about keeping control of the house and the senate wasn't even considered to be "in play" for the Democrats. George Allen was a guaranteed victory and almost a surefire candidate to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2008. And a single man, much more representative of the changing face of America than the tired stereotype of the bigoted Southerner the Allen campaign catered to brought a key player in the party to his knees, and set the stage for the dramatic victory of the Democrats in November, which will reshape American politics for at least the next two years, and made the talk of a "permanent Republican majority" a bad joke rather than a dismal prospect.
The Senator, the Monkey and the Nana
Senator George Allen has been having a rough time since he called a college student a "Macaca." Macaca is a common racist term used in France, where Allens mother is from. His once large lead in the polls is rapidly slipping. And now he is being forced to change his planned campaign stops to avoid protesters, including two who dressed up like a monkey and a banana.
On Friday Allen was at an event at a Holiday Inn when a University of Virginia law student asked an important question no media member has the balls to ask:
Have you ever used the word nigger?
The student then went on to ask why Allen had once displayed a noose in his office. Handling it like a politician, Allen smiled, put his hands on the students shoulders and said they could talk about it later. His aides then escorted the student out. Allen turned to the nearly all-white crowd of Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce members and said,
Once in a while you get ambushed, thats OK. Thats part of it.
Part of being a racist? Or a politician?
Allen then made for his bus and got the hell out of there. His next stop was supposed to be City Hall where protesters, supporters and city officials were waiting. But Allen made the wise choice and did not show up. The banana and monkey photo op was apparently not a good one.
George Allen Macaca's His Way Out of Lead in VA Senate Race
One of the more bizarre political stories of this election season centers on Virginia Senator George Allen and his racist remarks made to college student S.R. Sidarth following Allen's campaign trail. Unfortunately for Allen, the remarks were captured on digital video, and have been floating around the web via YouTube:
Whoops! First of all - what the hell is a Macaca? Apparently it's a.... mohawk?
[Allen campaign spokesman Dick] Wadhams said, however, that the name was a variation of "Mohawk," the nickname he said Allen campaign staffers gave Sidarth because he had a Mohawk haircut.
Whether the University of Virginia senior's haircut -- closely cropped around the temples and above the ears, but otherwise full -- qualifies as a Mohawk is open to interpretation. Sidarth said he does not consider it a Mohawk.
That's just about the lamest excuse I can think of. And even if it were an appelation for a hairstyle, it doesn't make saying "Welcome to America," a pretty obvious presumption because of Sidarth's skin color, any less offensive, especially considering that Sidarth is a US native.
What really matters is that this particular scandal's popularity and availability via the internet seems to be having real implications for Allen's campaign, as his lead went from almost twenty percentage points above Democrat Jim Webb to a measly three point margin. Was it just a slip of the tongue or is Allen really a racist? He has been accused of it, even before this whole debacle.
Campaigning for governor in 1993, he admitted to prominently displaying a Confederate flag in his living room. He said it was part of a flag collection--and had been removed at the start of his gubernatorial bid. When it was learned that he kept a noose hanging on a ficus tree in his law office, he said it was part of a Western memorabilia collection. These explanations may be sincere. But, as a chief executive, he also compiled a controversial record on race. In 1994, he said he would accept an honorary membership at a Richmond social club with a well-known history of discrimination--an invitation that the three previous governors had refused. After an outcry, Allen rejected the offer. He replaced the only black member of the University of Virginia (UVA) Board of Visitors with a white one. He issued a proclamation drafted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans declaring April Confederate History and Heritage Month. The text celebrated Dixie's "four-year struggle for independence and sovereign rights." There was no mention of slavery.
None of which constitutes a smoking gun, but at the very least, an intense insensitivity to issues that hold a lot of weight for racial minorities. His latest gaffe may have been more of the same, but at the moment the polls suggest people can't discern any difference.