Senator George Allen apology for Racial Slur against NRI Student

Virginia, Aug. 17, 2006
Dr. Ramesh Patel

NRI S.R. Sidarth, 20, (non-resident Indian) 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

NRI, Sidarth, a University of Virginia senior who attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County. His father, Shekar Narasimhan, is a mortgage banker who has contributed more than $35,000 to Democratic causes in the past decade, according to a review of state and federal campaign finance reports.

Sidarth 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.”

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.

S.R. Sidarth 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.”

Members of the US Indian Political Action Committee said they have received hundreds of e-mails about the comments Allen made Friday at a speech that S.R. Sidarth was videotaping for his Democratic challenger, Jim Webb.

"Obviously this is something that has us very, very concerned," said Sonjay Puri, a northern Virginia businessman and founder and director of the PAC, which claims 30,000 members. "The remarks are very insensitive."

Puri, who described himself as nonpartisan, said the PAC has had good relations with Allen and he has been receptive to the group's political interests on issues including the economy and immigration. But he added that said Allen faces a "lot of bridges to be mended."

Despite a quick apology Monday, criticism poured in about Allen's use of the word "Macaca" to address a volunteer for the campaign of his Democratic opponent, James Webb, and also about another Allen comment, "Welcome to America." Democrats, left-wing bloggers and civil rights groups called him "insensitive" and "racist," while some conservatives called him "foolish" and "mean."