YouTube Keeping the Boobs on the Small Screen and off the Public Stage (Anna)

It looks like Senator George Allen (R-VA), who has his eye on the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, may have sunk his chances in the national arena by singling out and belittling a South Asian man, the only person of color in the audience, at a campaign rally in southwestern Virgina. Is it any wonder our foreign policy is such a mess, when this is who we have serving on our Senate foreign relations committee? I find it telling that, immediately after publicly humiliating S.R. Sidarth, Allen segues to "We're in the midst of a war on terror." I guess brown people can can serve as useful visual props for the particularly slow pitchfork wielders.  Slate's John Dickerson, who skews, like many of Slate's political correspondents, toward the New Republic/DNC conservative side of the Democratic spectrum, oddly seems to spin an almost sympathetic take on Allen's situation, using it as an example of the difficulty candidates have contending with the ease of capturing and disseminating their most awkward moments through internet video. Personally, I fail to see this as anything but a heartening sign that wink-wink, local prejudice baiting politics may become increasingly hard to pull off in a YouTube age.

Comments

[Ruchira Paul]

George Allen's problem with racial prejudice goes beyond his latest monkey business. His non-apologetic apology notwithstanding, this comment clearly illustrates what he really meant.
"Let's give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." Allen then began talking about the "war on terror."

Hmm. I wonder why he was welcoming Sidarth to America. Could it be that he doesn't look like an American to Allen and his ilk?

Here is much more on Allen and his lily white past by someone who has studied him.

[Ruchira Paul]

I also hope that a dogged group of Asians and other minorities will find the time to follow Allen around on his campaign trail wearing these T-shirts.

The constant public needling will force him to bare his true feelings some more. As we have seen from the recent example of Mel Gibson, people's deep seated prejudices have a way of tumbling out uncontrollably when they are stressed out, angry or drunk.