We’re still trying to decide what Sen. George Allen meant when he called University of Virginia student S.R. Sidarth “Macaca” during a recent stump speech. Maybe he meant to say “macaw,” a bird with gaily-colored plumage? Or “Macarena,” the ’90s dance craze popularized by the band Los Del Rio?

Or did he mean to say that Sidarth was farkakte, a Yiddish word that loosely translates as “shitty”? Yeah, I’d think it was shitty too if I were running for Senate and my asshole opponent sent someone around to videotape every casual slur I made. Our readers were all over this last night and this morning. Read what they came up with after the jump:

MORE »

We love Sen. George Allen’s “tell it like it is” spirit on so many issues, like the way he called University of Virginia student S.R. Sidarth “Macaca” at a campaign rally and welcomed him to America. That’s the sort of leadership this country needs. But what does Macaca mean? It’s not an Hindi word, that’s for sure. “I’ve never heard of it,” said Vicky Singh, server at Heritage India restaurant on Connecticut Ave. in DC, and a bona fide Indian himself. It’s not Pakistani or Bangaladeshi, either. “It might be something in Urdu, but not in Hindi,” said Singh. OK, it’s possible Sen. Allen is one of America’s 350,000 Urdu speakers. But maybe he meant something else.

MORE »