Senator George Allen got into some trouble this week after referring to a campaign aide of his opponent as “macaca”. As the aide is of Indian descent, there was much speculation about what Allen meant:

A video clip of the rally shows Allen calling Sidarth a name that sounded like “Macaca” — a term associated with a species of monkeys or a city in South Africa. Later in the clip he welcomed Sidarth to America and “the real world of Virginia.”

Allen’s campaign says the name was intended to be a variation of “Mohawk.” That’s the nickname campaign staffers gave Sidarth because of his hair, which is cropped closely on the sides. And the campaign says Allen called attention to Sidarth simply to welcome him to a place in Virginia that Webb has never been to and probably will never visit.

The explanation is obviously meaningless to those who practice professional outrage:

Steve Mukherjee, a spokesman for the Washington chapter of the Association of Indians in America, said Allen’s comments were “hurtful,” and he chided the senator for not being more sensitive.

“The world is so volatile and so delicate,” Mukherjee said. “You have to be careful what you say and how you say it. The U.S. is no longer black and white.”

Here’s the kicker, though (via Rich Lowry):

Asked what macaca means, Mukherjee said: “What it means, I don’t know. But it’s going to cause him some grief.”

When in doubt about a word’s meaning, children, don’t look it up in the dictionary or google it, instead become indignant and let your ignorance overpower all rational thought. Only then can you reach the upper echelon of the professional outrage circuit. Good luck.

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