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solomonsprayer -> RE: Criticisms and Dirt on McCain? (9/6/2008 1:06:34 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Rufas2000
So to summarize: he used a term that is derogatory to Asians (presumably more than once), said he would stop using the offending term, renounced the use of all bigoted language and apologized for using it.
Ummm ... OK?
I think the insensitive nature of this comment (not even the slightest hint of shock or sympathy towards Asian Americans who were hurt by the slur) and double-standard analysis/reaction is indicative of the bias I see here from many posters.
First, McCain used "gook" over and over and over and over and refused to repent and stop (this was when he was up for Presidential nomination in 2000). He defied critics saying he had the right to use it, given his experience and that it was to speicifcally refer to his captors. Despite being told it was offensive, he still said he would not stop. He felt his war suffering gave him the free-pass to use that slur. He said that it was the nicest thing he could think of to refer to his captors. Yet, he did not see how Asian Americans in the country might be offended and hurt by it...Those who've suffered racial abuse and whose memories of pain are triggered by such terms were certainly sensitive to it (words which have been historically used to humilate, intimidate, and degrade racial minorities).
I agree his expeience was unimaginably painful. I don't even completely blame him for his anger and slur as a kind of natural (even if wrong) human response. But what I think once you are told how offensive it is to others, you should have the judgment to stop and realize what you've done. He did not.
It took much media hounding before he finally relented. Like many have said, if he said the "N" word over and over, who in America would allow him to represent them as a Presidential candidate in 2000? ...There is an desensitization towards Asian slurs that allowed many to ignore or downplay his racial slurs. On top of that, there was the white privilege and American war hero exemption.
We can use the media's treatment of Barack Obama as an example. The media has hounded his pastor for saying similarly damaging things about whites. Why don't people bring up McCain's past? Why can't whites try to be more understanding of the living hell African Americans went through in this country, being dragged and separated from their families from AFrica into America. Forced to endure slavery, rape, separation of family, lynching, depravation of education, poverty, Jim Crow, racial intimidation, etc. etc. etc.!
Why can't they look at Obama's pastor and see if they can begin to remotely understand what Blacks have gone through and the legacy that racism has played in shaping the lives of so many African Americans historically and to this day and see why Jeremiah Wright might have used the offensive statements he did? I'm not a Wright supporter at all. But I see the double standard.
Yes,...so a white war hero John McCain suffered in Vietnam and so he gets a pass to use a racial slur whenver he wants. ...Jeremiah Wright cannot (on behalf of Black suffering). I think both shouldn't use slurs. But I see a double standard in reaction and outrage. There is a kind of white privilege used here. Whites are more human than others. Their actions are justified more easily and their suffernig counts more.
If we apply the same standard of scrutiny to John McCain as we do others, we can clearly see he was wrong and this was a character flaw for a long-time. If Barack Obama called whites "crackers" and refused to repent, because he suffered in some torturous way, no one would accept that.
Do you see the white privilege and double standard in this situation? I think John McCain was honorable to repent and apologize to all Asians Americans in the country just as I think Obama was honorable to repudiate Jeremiah Wright. But that does not mean we should not take a look at these things to see how the charcter of our candidates developed over time and also face the reality of multiple oppressions in this nation and understand how to break free of them (which means learning to see people of all backgrounds as part of a larger humanity that is equal in rights, equal in the value of their suffering, and equal in opposition towards oppression - in this case racial oppression).
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