Off-hand remark by senator causes flap

Tuesday, August 15, 2006; Posted: 8:13 a.m. EDT (12:13 GMT)

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- A volunteer of Indian descent working for Democrat Jim Webb's U.S. Senate campaign said Monday he felt insulted when Sen. George Allen called him a name that sounded like "Macaca" during a rally in western Virginia.

S.R. Sidarth, 20, spent last week following Allen's "listening tour" and filming the appearances for the Webb campaign, which distributed a video clip of Friday's appearance to reporters.

"This fellow over here with the yellow shirt -- Macaca or whatever his name is -- he's with my opponent," Allen said. "He's following us around everywhere."

Macaca is a term associated with a species of monkeys.

"This is not something we knew," said Allen campaign spokesman Dick Wadhams.

The name also could be spelled Makaka, which is a city in South Africa.

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.

"It's grasping -- it's reaching," Webb spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd said of Wadhams' explanation. "This was a term meant to demean Sidarth and his presence there at the event."

Asked what he thought Allen meant by using the word Macaca, Sidarth said: "I took it to mean that was the first thing that came to his mind when he saw a person of color. It does have connotations in Hispanic cultures of being associated with a monkey."

Sidarth, who said he had introduced himself to the senator earlier in the week, said he felt Allen "was singling me out as a person of color when the rest of the audience was Caucasian." Wadhams said Sidarth was not the only nonwhite person at the rally in Breaks, Virginia, which is near the Kentucky border.

The video clip shows Allen telling the crowd: "Let's give a welcome to Macaca here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia."

Sidarth was born and raised in Fairfax County.

Wadhams said Allen called attention to Sidarth simply to welcome him to "a place in Virginia Webb has never been to and probably never will be to."

University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said Allen's remarks could damage Allen's efforts to position himself for a possible run for president in 2008.

"This is a comment that will be regurgitated a thousand times," Sabato said. "It was a clumsy, stupid gaffe, and it's this kind of thing that destroys presidential candidacies."

The words could be especially damaging when considered in the context of Allen's history of displaying the Confederate flag, Sabato said. Allen used to keep the flag in his living room, and he wore a Confederate lapel pin for his high school yearbook photo.

"People may read into this more than is actually there, but whose fault is that?" Sabato said.

Wadhams, meanwhile, questioned why Webb still has not apologized for what he said was an anti-Semitic flyer during the Democrat's primary campaign. The flyer featured a hook-nosed caricature of Webb's Jewish opponent with money overflowing his pockets.

"If they are so sensitive about stuff, how come they used something as despicable as an anti-Semitic flyer?" Wadhams said.

Denny Todd said Wadhams was rehashing a two-month-old story to try to divert attention from Allen's remarks.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Allen responds:

Reached Monday evening, Allen said that the word had no derogatory meaning for him and that he was sorry. "I would never want to demean him as an individual. I do apologize if he’s offended by that. That was no way the point."–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.

I honestly don't even know what to say about that

macaco(male) or macaca(female) means monkey in portuguese.

Pretty stupid.

The stupid thing was the comment about "Welcome to America". Anyone who would say that obviously is not going to know the macaca means monkey in Portugese.

actually, what i heard is he fucked up and meant mohawk(a) or something, since that was the guys nickname by his (the candidates) party, since this guy had been following him around for a whole week videotaping his every move

Well it certainly wasn't the most flattering compliment. And as I recall, there is nothing illegal about videotaping rival candidates at public campaign rallies.

who ever said there was something wrong, i merely pointed out that they had given him a nickname that the candidate tried to blurt out

george allen is a possible candidate for the republican presidential nomination, too, i think. oh well. there goes that.

If this simple error is the issue that prevents him from running, then we deserve four more years of Bu$h. So the guy was confused about some rivials volunteer and said the wrong thing. Get the f**k over it. George Allen is a tool for lots of reasons, this is far too insignificant to be counted among them. I think that fact that is national news show how petty and partisian we are about elected officials and is a good example of why no one worthy will run.

Yeah, I don't think the Makaka thing is a big deal. I'm not sure what he meant by "Welcome to America". He could have meant "How are you doing, foreigner?" or "THIS is what America's really about".

Just to play devil's advocate as someone born in the US but of Indian descent. It sucks when people assume you aren't American. We have no accent, we're part of the culture. to have some guy try to joke, "welcome to america." is so ignorant and stupid, they shouldn't represent this country. This country is not meant to be a bunch of ignorant fools running around saynig how great we are and how foreigners are just out to ruin us.

so from my standpoint, it's insulting. Why can't i be seen as American? Just because I have brown skin. That's retarded.

I doubt Allen thinks everyone with brown skin is a furrinner. But I'm willing to guess the number of people over 40 that have made that identical mistake (maybe not at a speaking engagement) is probably close to 100%. That doesn't make it right, but it's not like it doesn't happen all the time.

As for foreigners ruining the US, I would think people from India would probably be the least worrisome segment and since George Allen is from Virginia, the East Coast seat of the internet revolution, he is probably pretty familiar with central Asian people.

no doubt the mistake happens to most people... the first wave of immigratino of indians came in the early 70's,. so now there is a large population of us who have been born here. I throw that out there to help with people just not knowing about it.

i just think the allen's intent was to be like, "you don't look like one of us, so how can you be one of us." i think he's trying very hard to make it sound like PC people are blowing things out of proportion.

George Allen is a douche. If a presidential candidate comes from Virginia it better be Mark Warner.