Offended by senator’s sense of humor
The March 5 Rocky Mountain News story, “Housefuls of the faithful and barrels full of laughs,” contained this comment from Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, describing the new chief of the state Republican Party, Dick Wadhams:
“A leader who is resourceful enough to know that when life gives you macaca, you turn it into majorities.”
Her comment may have been intended as humor, but the word macaca is offensive and is a slur no matter how used or for what purpose.
Personally, I believe the slur was intentional and was referring to the recent election loss of Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen, largely attributable to his racist views.
Spence deserves the same fate for her hurtful and callous “humor.”
And I’m disappointed with the Rocky for seeming to think her comment was witty and giving it undeserved attention in that sidebar with her picture.
I will not vote for someone who uses terms like that and I won’t subscribe to a newspaper that condones its use and even seems to think it’s funny.
William “Jerry” Andersen, Littleton
macaca = monkeys is racist?
and yes jerry Va sure elected a fine upstanding person who adores women in all of his books and his writings are such that they should be required reading in 2nd grade.
I am almost sure the news will go out of business when you leave. Cya
Hey "Jerry" , lighten up and step off the political correctness bus. What a waste of space and time so you can feel self rightgeous.
Posted by on March 19, 2007 06:13 AMMacaca: feminine Spanish noun meaning monkey. In Honduras it also means s small coin of the value of one peso (even though they don't have pesos in that country). In Chile and Cuba it's an adjective meaning squat, ugly, and ill-shaped. In Mexico it means hobgoblin or bogie. However, if the senator meant to say "caca," it would have meant a childlike reference to excrement.
Hey, anonymous one, political correctness is just an excuse for self-righteous jerks looking for any reason to get offended.
Posted by Judge Joe on March 19, 2007 09:57 AMReject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears. -- Marcus AureliusPosted by JohnII on March 19, 2007 10:01 AM
Jared Hood in the Post letters 3/19/07, an army Iraq vet, speaks out against the war in which I am in accord with; however, he uses the pronoun "we" regarding the invasion of Iraq. He can't use the pronoun because that includes me and millions who were against invasion. He needs to say, "Bush invaded Iraq," and could add, built 17 huge bases because he intended to occupy Iraq for the oil and evangelize it. r22037yahoo
Posted by Richard Grimes on March 19, 2007 10:03 AMIt is tempting, Mr. Grimes, to offer my trenchant retort to your off-topic comment. But, in doing so, I think I would encourage your behavior and thereby degrade this public forum.
Posted by JohnII on March 19, 2007 10:28 AMYo Johnil: Sorry about the off-topic comment; The postings were scant; I didn't think anybody would mind; I, will henceforth, conform to the subject matter. r22037yahoo
Posted by Richard Grimes on March 19, 2007 11:24 AMYes, for God's sake, Johnil, let's not do anything to degrade this high class forum. If Grimes really wants to keep in step with this forum, he needs to learn to use some vulgarity and invective. I mean, what is the point of writing a letter if you don't call someone a name? Grimes' post is about as innocuous a letter as you'll find on this high class forum.
Posted by on March 19, 2007 12:08 PMObjecting to the use of racial slurs is not being PC. But many of those who use slurs often cry "PC" to cover their tracks. Google that word (if you know how) and the first 10 hits you get refer to it as a racial slur. As for the dictionary rants from several readers, pretty obvious that Senator Spence intended a comparison to monkeys (as did the former VA senator) and that is the point.
Guess it’s easier never having to be thoughtful, to think before you speak, rebelling against PC-ism, and accusing anyone who disagrees with that as being PC.
But when you object to something, does that make you a rebel, an iconoclast, an independent thinker and everyone else PC? Right, keep telling yourself that.
But if by PC, you mean being aware of others sensibilities and objecting to racial slurs, then so be it, think that is simply doing the right thing.
But again, this is not about being PC, rather it’s about objecting to racism, intolerance, name calling and using derogatory terms to define people. And it does not matter who is using the slur, its plain wrong, whether it is a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent or a local newspaper.
Senator Spence said what she intended and perpetuated more of that special meanness that too many politicians use to cause discomfort and pain. Flag words, code words, and other types of insulting and demeaning terms should not be expected from an elected official, nor should use of that language go unchallenged by a respected newspaper.
Can you imagine someone using the full version of the "N" word as political humour? We have thankfully tried to stricken that word from historical vocabulary not because it is politically correct, but because it is displicable. Sadly our youth uses it as a nickname or slang, which makes anyone over the age of 30 recoil.
Macaca doesn't have the same meaning or historical import, yet is demeaning when applied to human beings. Sadly, it showed George Allen to be out of touch not realizing what this word meant, or why it shouldn't be used to describe someone in his audience.
The word was referenced as a humourous point recently, but can you imagine a world where we struck these derogartory words from our diction, even if it meant risking a joke?
Posted by David DiBello on March 21, 2007 08:38 AM