George Allen's "Macaca" roughly translated

[Lusted4]

TAR BABY

[patrice]

1. I was just wondering . . .

Are we sure it wasn't an fumbled attempt at the guy's name? Assuming GA sort of knew his name anyway . . . .

What language is "macaca"?

I listened to that clip this afternoon on RR's show, and I wasn't sure about it.

[AspenRose]

2. Sidarth

That was the guy's name

[Connie_Corleone]

4. The man's name is Sidarth.

Kind of hard to get macaca out of Sidarth.

[POAS]

8. The language is English

Its official usage is as a genus of monkey, including Rhesus. It is also racial slur.

[LostinVA]

18. The boy is a Fourth Year at UVA, and is Virginia born and bred

With an Indian background. Under California-Freeper Felix. Felix's mom is from Tunisa... thus, Felix knew what he was saying. The word is a French Tunisian slur, basically meaning n*gger.

[RaleighNCDUer]

21. My understanding is it is a derogetory slang from French

North Africa.

Anybody see Battle of Algiers lately?

[MrCoffee]

3. Reading all these posts, I wonder...

if I was the last person in the world to know that "macaca" or whatever is a racial slur. I've never in my life heard that word used.

[LonelyLRLiberal]

5. Never heard of it either -----

and was raised in Alabama amidst lots of racists - that said, they were pretty limited in their racist vocabulary.

[LostinVA]

19. It is a slur amongst French Tunisians towards blacks

Guess where Allen's mom is from? Guess what dialect of French he knows?

[LonelyLRLiberal]

30. Heard a piece about it on NPR today

They explained the word origin and meaning, but did not explain where Allen would have learned the word. Where did you find out about Allen's mother?

[mcscajun]

7. Nope. You're not alone. I've never heard the word, or heard OF it.

I don't know if it's a slur, a stretch, or a Bushism out of someone else's mouth.

[POAS]

9. It's more of an English as opposed to

an American thing. I believe it originated in the Colonies.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. Even if it were meaningless gibberish...

he still would have been using it to mock his Indian opponent.

[Boo Boo]

25. It's not really "macaca," but "Macaque."

It's a racial slur from the other side of the pond, used to refer to North Africans. It's the French colonialist version of the 'N' word. You don't hear it used that way in America because you're not hanging out on White Supremist Internet message boards. Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if the majority of Americans don't even know what a Macaque really is (a kind of monkey).

Apparently, Allen's mother is French Tunisian.

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. It's an obscure racial slur, I'll give him that. It's the kind of thing

he must have picked up from the private executive banter at an exclusive country club. It's a little more sophisticated stuff, like the "welcome to america" line. He has been doing this stuff his whole life, he knows them all.

[LostinVA]

20. He picked it up from his mom -- literally

[The_Casual_Observer]

23. Makes sense, it isn't at all the typical run of the mill bigot stuff.

[Hamlette]

10. he knows what it means. . .

http://www.tnr.com/blog/theplank?pid=31575

MACAQUE:

Not only is macaque apparently a French slur used to describe North Africans, Allen would have good reason to know it is. His mother is French Tunisian (yeah, that's in North Africa), and Allen speaks French.

[durrrty libby]

13. I would bet that Allen could win the

Jeopardy challenge on racial slurs

[KamaAina]

17. "I'll take nooses for 400, please, Alex."

:puke:

[tocqueville]

14. Seder is absolutely right

macaque is used as racial slur in French specially against Asians.

[patrice]

15. English slang for a French word. Okay, thanks.

I have a pretty good vocabulary and didn't recognize it as English. So I was wondering if it wasn't the guy's name.

Racism scares hell out of me. It is sooooooooo purely Crazy.

[lonestarnot]

11. or my shit

[LostinVA]

16. Of god, please no more tar baby threads for a while....

[Lusted4]

22. My feeble attempt at humor n/t

[LostinVA]

24. That's what I figured!

We need at least a two month amnesty!

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

26. This Jewish chick has some Yiddish for George Felix Allen:

Hey, George, you're a "Groisser potz!" (a big prick!)

"Kush in toches arein!" (Kiss my ass!)

[LostinVA]

27. I knew the first one 100%, and most of the second

Irish-Italian ex-Catholic... grew up in NJ... best friend from 4-12 grade was Patty Wasserman.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

28. I love it!

[LostinVA]

29. hehehehe