ACTION ALERT: TELL YOUR SENATOR TO CENSURE ALLEN

So, I know there's already two diaries about Allen's royal fuck up the other day in which he revealed himself as the virulent racist we all always knew he was on the rec list, and God know`s how many others on the recent list. But me feeling is that this story is important enough, for a large enough number of reasons, that we should keep it in circulation, and if we can do a Connecticut week, then why not a "George Allen is a racist jackass" week?

For those who spent yesterday under a rock and don't know what I'm referring to, see here

And here

While much space as already been given to the politician implications of Allen's monstrous jackassery, and how it will or will not effect him, this diary isn't about that. This is a call to action both to keep the pressure on Allen, and to show those in the Republican party who for years have believed it's okay to be racist so long as your subtle and oblique about it racism is not acceptable, no matter how obscure or coded you try to make it. Today, I'm writing to my Senators to introduce a resolution of censure against George Allen for his recent racist remarks. Below is the language of my message...

At a recent campaign event, your colleague George Allen speaking of a young Indian-American staffer from his opponent's campaign made remarks that are unbecoming of a member of the United States Senate. At the event in question, Allen used a racial slur directed at the staffer, obscure to most Americans, but well known to speakers of French, and other European languages. Allen speaks French, and his mother is of Mediterranean extraction, suggesting he understood the negative racial connotations of the term.

According to Washington Post and video of the event, Allen repeatedly referred to the staffer, S.R. Sidarth, as a "macaca," a term that to  Europeans Romanic-language speaking countries carries the same sort of negative connotations as the worst American racial slurs would to us. Due to Allen's linguistic knowledge and his family background, it is implausible that he would be familiar with this word but be ignorant of its deeply negative and divisive connotations.

Allen's repeated use of this term to demean and belittle another American based on his race shows a crass and callous demeanor and a troubling personal morality. Members of the United States Senate should be servants of all their constituents, not just the ones that look like them. This behavior is reprehensible, and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms by the institution George Allen holds office in.

I ask that on the return of the Senate from recess you introduce a resolution of censure of Senator George Allen for acts unbecoming a United States Senator.

Sincerely-

...

While there are political upsides to censuring Allen, that is hardly the point. Allen's remarks were despicable by any standards, and have even given some Republicans pause. There should be a strong and swift institutional condemnation of Allen's deplorable language, and it falls upon each of us here, at the grass-roots, to demand that condemnation come. Contact your Senators and ask that they cesure Allen

You know what to do. Now, lets get to it...

Update Jeffrey Feldman has a diary that explains just how bad what Allen said was

•  Please recommend

  And please, let your Senators know what you think of Allen's behavior.

  by Goldfish on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:12:42 AM PDT

•  And the insult was IN FRENCH!

  Does that makes it a "Freedom Slur."

  by daulton on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:16:05 AM PDT

•  Any ideas for reaching out to the East Indian...

  ...community? They might take issue to being called "monkeys."

  by daulton on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:17:07 AM PDT

•  this just makes it look like

  we're just trying to score political points (and in truth, that would be exactly right)

  thats not to say that Allen shouldn't be roundly beaten for it, but that can occur without doing something like censure.

  by FleetAdmiralJ on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:18:53 AM PDT

  •  You know,

    I'm usually the one around here urging caution when other people say "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, let's go in guns blazing!"... But Jesus on a pogo stick! A United States Senator just called a young American the French synonym for nigger!.

    Censure is the politically and morally right move, and I don't think we should shy away from it just because it might make us look mean.

    I could care less how it looks (though actually I think it is good politics for us to do this), Allen needs to get the worst kind of smack down he can get, and it needs to be an institutional one, because this isn't just an issue of what's acceptable in politics, it's an issue of what's acceptable from our institutions of government.

    by Goldfish on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:23:48 AM PDT

    •  if one looks at the history of censure

      in the senate, you'll find that senators that get censured virtually always either have a) broken the law or b) have made repeated egregious ethical violations

      http://www.senate.gov/...

      The things senators have been censured over:

      • Reading confidential documents in open Senate session before an injunction of secrecy was removed
      • Releasing to the New York Evening Post a copy of President John Tyler's message to the Senate of April 22, 1844 regarding the treaty of annexation between the United States and the Republic of Texas. Result: Censured. Did not run for reelection (i would have thought that would be public info, but i guess not)
      • Fighting in the Senate chamber (x2)
      • Hiring a staffer with a direct conflict of interest
      • non-cooperation in a senate investigation
      • Use of office to convert campaign funds to his personal benefit
      • Improper financial conduct
      • numerous unethical financial practices

      by FleetAdmiralJ on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:30:44 AM PDT

      •  You forgot

        About Joe Mccarthy, who was censured for making rash and unsubstantiated accusations that ruined a number of people’s lives. While I don’t mean to suggest what Allen did is in any way of the same magnetite as Mccarthy, I would suggest that when a Senator makes statements that of indisputable moral repugnancy or recklessness, that there is precedent for the use of censure.

        This is not acceptable behavior from a United States Senator. Censure is an legitimate option.

        by Goldfish on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:37:20 AM PDT

        •  no i didn't

          mccarthy is listed as thus on the page:

          Charge: Abuse and non-cooperation with the Subcommittee on Privileges and Elections during a 1952 investigation of his conduct; for abuse of the Select Committee to Study Censure.

          he was the "non-cooperation with an investigation" one

          by FleetAdmiralJ on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:40:20 AM PDT

          •  Ah, gottcha

            I had heard the censure had to do with statements he had made, but I guess that was incorrect.

            by Goldfish on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:41:19 AM PDT

            •  the congressional investigation

              may have been about his statements.  however, the censure was over not cooperating with that investigation

              by FleetAdmiralJ on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:45:24 AM PDT

      •  The fact that this list does not include

        many censurable actions and words related to this country's continuing struggle to afford equal rights, including a failure to enact a national law against lynching,is justification enough to add racial demogoguery to the list of censurable offenses.

        Basically, the question you're asking is, "Are racial slurs from the mouths of government officials serious enough for censure?"

        We may finally be at a point when the answer is "Yes!"

        by Fasaha on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:37:24 AM PDT

        •  I would hope to God

          We've reached that point.

          by Goldfish on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:39:22 AM PDT

        •  not every wrong action is or should be

          considered censurable.

          Censuring is basically like saying "ok, you really fucked up this time and pissed off everyone in the senate"

          also, one thing to consider is that he wasn't acting in his role as senator when he said it (he was acting in his role as candidate).  If he had said something similar on the senate floor, it would be considered much more egregious since it would come much closer to disrespecting the senate which, when you get down to it, virtually all censure resolutions that have been successful are about.

          by FleetAdmiralJ on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:44:36 AM PDT

          •  Well, I would hope my Senators

            One of whom is a person of color, would feel that Allen "really fucked up this time and pissed off everyone in the senate." I would hope the other Senators would be pissed off.

            And as far as successful, it doesn't have to be successful to punish Allen for his jackassery, though I would very much like it to be. But really, I'll be happy with a news cycle with everyone in the media saying "Allen" "racaist" and "censure" as many times as possible.

            by Goldfish on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:50:49 AM PDT

          •  I agree that 'not every wrong action'

            should be censured, but promoting racism is not just any old wrong action.  This country fought a civil war over an institution founded on racial division, and I would think that in 2006 we might be at a point where government officials  could be held accountable for trying to drive the country back to practices and mores that we have struggled mightily to abandon.

            This is not just any old conduct.  It's fundamental to American identity. We don't need senators who envision  America as a white nation.

            by Fasaha on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 06:02:48 AM PDT

•  Goldfish

  longtime.

  change "you" to "your" in the title. looks better to all of us circling the coral piece.

  by Miss Devore on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:36:35 AM PDT

  •  Thanks, good catch

    I'm doing that not sleeping thing again, and its not being kind to me.

    by Goldfish on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:38:42 AM PDT

    •  je comprende

      n/t

      by Miss Devore on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:49:27 AM PDT

•  Typos

  "Allen's repeated use of this term to demean and belittle another American based on their race..." should read "...based on his race..."

  "This behavior is reprehensible, and should be condemns in the strongest possible terms..." should read "...should be condemned..."

  by Doc Sarvis on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 05:56:10 AM PDT

  •  well,

    After being up for as long as I have, two typos ain't that bad...

    by Goldfish on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 06:01:43 AM PDT

    •  Not bad at all

      I could get nit picky about comma placement, but then people would think I'm a grammar Nazi.

      Thanks for posting this diary. I recommended it, and sent both my Senators e-mails using your text. I doubt Hutchison or Cornyn will act on this, but it if enough people around the country condemn this man maybe the Senate will censure his racist ass.

      by Doc Sarvis on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 06:19:19 AM PDT

      •  Hey, you never know...

        They pulled Lott from his post for a lot less.

        by Goldfish on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 06:24:59 AM PDT

•  recommened, excellent, very well-written

  You did an excellent job of translating the rage we all feel into a well-reasoned and more formal tone, carefully explaining the facts without undue inflammatoryness. Exactly the way Senators need to hear it. I hope this makes the reco list and we get letters like this sent to every Senator.

  Next step is that EVERY elected official, especially senators, who speaks in public in the next 72 hrs needs to be hounded by reporters (and barring that, other people) with the question, "Senator X! Senator X!-- Where do you stand on Sen. Allen's use of white power language?"

  We need to get everybody on record.

  by reid fan on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 08:10:25 AM PDT

  •  change what I said 'undue'

    No amount of inflammatoryness could be "undue" on this story, it is that bad. You know what I mean tho.

    by reid fan on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 08:15:20 AM PDT

•  Wadham 'Allen didn't know M@#$%^ meaning

  For the moment let's just assume that Felix didn't know what M#$%&* (that word his mom used) actually means, it's just a word, "he meant 'mohawk'", which Sidarth doesn't have. Let's just assume it wasn't disparaging, it is still name calling, it is still sterotyping, it is still divisive. No excuse sould be alllowed. Slur or not, it is still unbecoming of a senator. BTW, It was very difinitely a Racist slur, being obscure does not diminish the insult in any way. Remember when you where a kid and someone would call you something that you didn't understand, not only did you feel hurt, but your naivety prevent any retort. Yes, censure, the vote him out.  

  by ERyd on Tue Aug 15, 2006 at 09:19:33 AM PDT