Sen. Allen, Racist?
This is just reprehensible:
Sen. Allen again apologizes for remark, regrets use of Confederate flag
By WARREN FISKE, The Virginian-Pilot
September 13, 2006WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. George Allen offered a broad apology Tuesday for failing to grasp how his use of words and symbols, including the Confederate flag, could be offensive to racial minorities.
The remarks came at a time when Allen, a Republican in a tough re-election fight this year, is facing national criticism and declining popularity after a widely perceived racial slur about a Democratic campaign worker last month.
During a luncheon speech before about 300 black educators attending a national conference for officials from historically black colleges and universities, Allen again apologized for the remark. Then, for the first time, he expressed regret for his longtime infatuation with the Confederate flag.
"The point is, symbols matter, they should matter, and this is something that I wish I learned a lot earlier," Allen said. "Even if your heart is pure, the things you say and do and the symbols you use do matter because of the way others may take them."
Allen wore a Confederate flag pin on his lapel in his 1970 graduation picture from a Southern California high school. He hung a noose from a plant in his Charlottesville law office in the 1980s and a Confederate flag inside his home. As governor in the mid-1990s, he alienated some by signing a resolution that designated a Confederate history month in Virginia but did not acknowledge the evils of slavery.
Allen, 54, said he did not see racial overtones in the Confederate flag. He said he was a rebellious youth and viewed the banner as a "symbol against authority." As a history major at t he University of Virginia in the early 1970s, he said, he also began to see the flag as a proud heritage symbol for those with ancestors from the South who fought in the Civil War.
How this man, Republican Sen. Allen of Virginia, still doesn’t “get it” is completely incomprehensible.
Here’s the kicker:
The weird thing is, as Ed Kilgore pointed out back in April, it’s not even like George Allen is even a southerner. As Ed wrote then, "Allen’s whole cowboy-boot-wearing, tobacco-chewing, country-music-loving Southern Man routine was something he cultivated during his formative high school years in the hyper-exclusive Southern California community of Palos Verdes."
And here’s the incident that prompted Republican Sen. Allen to issue his latest apology — now, keep in mind that the guy that Sen. Allen refers to as "maccaca" is an American of Indian descent:
