03/02/2000-John McCain Racist Remark

03/02/2000-John McCain\\

seattlepi.nwsource.com

On his campaign bus recently, Sen. John McCain told reporters, \"I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live.\" Although McCain said he was referring only to his prison guards, there are many reasons why his use of the word \"gook\" is offensive and alarming.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 13-6-2008 by iamcamouflage]

[edit on 13-6-2008 by iamcamouflage]

Although this an old article, I feel that it needs reposted. This is not acceptable behavior for anyone, let alone a senator or a presidential candidate.



seattlepi.nwsource.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by iamcamouflage

03/02/2000-John McCain\\

seattlepi.nwsource.com

On his campaign bus recently, Sen. John McCain told reporters, \"I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live.\" Although McCain said he was referring only to his prison guards, there are many reasons why his use of the word \"gook\" is offensive and alarming.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 13-6-2008 by iamcamouflage]



[edit on 13-6-2008 by iamcamouflage]

AN article from 2000 eh?I didnt know Mccain was running in 2000.I seriously question the validity of the link.Does seattle even have a paper by this name?Im not sure im not american.I better ask a true patriotic american,he/she would know.Im certainly not going to take your word for it.In this day and age it pays to double check just to be sure.Maybe one of my fellow ATSers can confirm this.
John Mccain 08


[edit on 13-6-2008 by Justice11]

[edit on 13-6-2008 by Justice11]

Originally posted by Justice11

Originally posted by iamcamouflage

03/02/2000-John McCain\\

seattlepi.nwsource.com

On his campaign bus recently, Sen. John McCain told reporters, \"I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live.\" Although McCain said he was referring only to his prison guards, there are many reasons why his use of the word \"gook\" is offensive and alarming.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 13-6-2008 by iamcamouflage]



[edit on 13-6-2008 by iamcamouflage]

AN article from 2000 eh?I didnt know Mccain was running in 2000.I seriously question the validity of the link.Does seattle even have a paper by this name?Im not sure im not american.I better ask a true patriotic american,he/she would know.Im certainly not going to take your word for it.In this day and age it pays to double check just to be sure.Maybe one of my fellow ATSers can confirm this.
John Mccain 08


[edit on 13-6-2008 by Justice11]

[edit on 13-6-2008 by Justice11]

McCain was running in a primary against Bush and the other Repulicans. Remember, Rove was cold calling voters asking if they would be more or less likely to vote for McCain if they new he fathered a African American child. Thus spreading the rumor and swaying voters at the last minute. I'm sure they(Bush, McCain, Rove) all laugh about it now.

Here is another link from the NYTimes
NYTimes






[edit on 13-6-2008 by iamcamouflage]

San Francisco Chronicle

edit:

"I will call right now, my interrogator that tortured me, a gook," McCain said. "(I can't believe that) anybody doesn't believe these interrogators and prison guards were cruel and sadistic people who deserve the worst appellations possible."

McCain said he does not consider the comment an epithet.

"Gook," he said, "is the kindest appellation I can give."

[edit on 6/13/2008 by apolluwn]

reply to post by Justice11



Yes, it's a real news paper. It's the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, i read it and the Seattle Times for years, when i lived there.

As for McCain's "gook" remark, i can hardly blame him for feeling that way, considering what the North Viet's did to him while he was a POW. Many vet's i'm sure have less than kind things to say about the Viets, N.Koreans, Chinese, or Japanese, depending on their experiences.

Everybody has some sort of a "skeleton" in their closet, if you dig hard enough.

reply to post by bg_socalif


I as well can understand him having anger towards his captors but as the article states;
"It is offensive because by using a racial epithet that has historically been used to demean all Asians to describe his captors, McCain failed to make a distinction between his torturers and an entire racial group."

Originally posted by iamcamouflage
reply to post by bg_socalif

 

I as well can understand him having anger towards his captors but as the article states;
"It is offensive because by using a racial epithet that has historically been used to demean all Asians to describe his captors, McCain failed to make a distinction between his torturers and an entire racial group."

They have to say that to be "politically correct". I don't think you have to stretch the imagination very far to know what he meant. It is the meaning that really matters as in what he meant by it. It does not matter what some journalist striving to be "politically correct" reads into it.

Originally posted by apolluwn

Originally posted by iamcamouflage
reply to post by bg_socalif

 

I as well can understand him having anger towards his captors but as the article states;
"It is offensive because by using a racial epithet that has historically been used to demean all Asians to describe his captors, McCain failed to make a distinction between his torturers and an entire racial group."

They have to say that to be "politically correct". I don't think you have to stretch the imagination very far to know what he meant. It is the meaning that really matters as in what he meant by it. It does not matter what some journalist striving to be "politically correct" reads into it.

I think YOU see it as being PC but really that is how we should be treating people. By not letting individuals represent entire races or ethnic groups. I dont think we should be giving a free pass to remarks of this type because "we" know what he meant.

"oh its no big deal, grandpa is from a different time, we have to let his racial slurs slide because he is old and that is how he views entire racial and ethnic groups."

[edit on 13-6-2008 by iamcamouflage]

It is about being "politically correct". I didn't say it was right. I didn't say it was OK to say this. It was a remark that was read into too much.

I'm not a fan of McCain, but he did apologize for this.

It is obvious that he did not intend the remark to degrade an entire racial group. He spoke very specifically about who he was referring to. Like I said, this doesn't make it right and because of that he offended people hence the apology.

Just because something has "historically been used to demean all Asians" doesn't mean it was.

"oh its no big deal, grandpa is from a different time, we have to let his racial slurs slide because he is old and that is how he views entire racial and ethnic groups."

This is NOT the same thing and you KNOW that.

Replace the word "gook" with any other racial slur, then read the remark again.

Is it still excusable?

Not in my opinion - a racial slur is a racial slur, regardless of the background behind it.

Using that logic, you can justify any kind of racism - so sorry, but it just doesn't wash with me when people start talking about PC or excuses.

Racism is racism.

reply to post by budski


Racism is blind hatred of an ENTIRE race of people for some illogical reason.

This is a racial slur used to express anger for a particular person.

It was in bad taste, but I hardly think it constitutes actual racism.

Originally posted by apolluwn
reply to post by budski

 

Racism is blind hatred of an ENTIRE race of people for some illogical reason.

This is a racial slur used to express anger for a particular person.

It was in bad taste, but I hardly think it constitutes actual racism.

What is the difference between actual racism, partial racism, and bad taste?

So, do you think that McCain was unaware that this slur has been used to represent an entire race. Probably not, but the problem here is that he is failing to distinguish the difference between his captors and every other person of Asian decent that had not tortured him. He lumped an entire race of people in with the select few captors that tortured him.

It is no different than equating all Muslims as terrorists simply because a small portion have perpetrated horrible acts.

We can go over my opinion vs. your opinion all you want. The simple fact is it is obvious what you are trying to do.

I don't even like McCain, but you aren't even following the guidelines for posting in the "Breaking Alternative News" section. This isn't "breaking news" and your original link is to an OPINION column.

reply to post by apolluwn


Like I said - substitute another racial slur.

Substitute the "N" word for "gooks"

Racial slurs are unacceptable whatever the excuse, and what he said betrays his mindset.

Originally posted by apolluwn
We can go over my opinion vs. your opinion all you want. The simple fact is it is obvious what you are trying to do.

I don't even like McCain, but you aren't even following the guidelines for posting in the "Breaking Alternative News" section. This isn't "breaking news" and your original link is to an OPINION column.

The only thing I was "trying" to do was point out that a current presidential candidate has made some very inappropriate comments with regards to race.

I only responded to you because it appeared you were trying to justify his comments. And IMO justifying these types of comments are as bad as saying them yourself. Same situation, when someone makes a racist joke, if you dont call them out on their behavior you are condoning that behavior. Racial or ethnic intolerance is unacceptable in any form.

If a mod wants to move this post then they are more than welcome. I'm not going to argue with you any more about what constitutes a racist comment or what McCain actually meant by his comments.

Fact is he did say it, and I dont think this is the type of behavior or view i think anyone should have, let alone the President of the US.

[edit on 13-6-2008 by iamcamouflage]

reply to post by iamcamouflage

I only responded to you because it appeared you were trying to justify his comments.

I didn't try to justify anything. I said I believed there was a difference, albeit, a small difference. I hope you have made that distinction.

The only thing I was "trying" to do was point out that a current presidential candidate has made some very inappropriate comments with regards to race.

You posting an article in a forum about news with a link to an obviously biased opinion column makes your intentions pretty suspect.

It's an obnoxious racial slur, but in this case I think it was emotion driven and McCain was trying to express how he felt at the time - a time when he was being routinely tortured and beaten. It was pretty common for US troops to refer to the Vietnamese as "gooks" in Vietnam - I don't think he meant to say "I will hate all Asians as long as I live"

Really, it was a dumb thing to say, but taken out of context it looks a lot worse.

I support Obama, but I hate this kind of politics where we take people's comments out of context to make them look like they're saying something they're not... we Obama supporters on ATS ought to know better.

I won't be voting for John McCain this fall, but it's because I think that his policies will take the country in the wrong direction, not because I believe he is a racist or an evil person.

iamcamouflage....that is a great codename for an Obama internet operative!

Calling the enemy an offensive name during war-time, or referring to them as such when describing a war-time situation is not offensive.

McCain did make a distinction, he clearly was talking about his torturers, not an entire group of people.

If this is all Obama's hit squad has on McCain, that is some pretty weak stuff.

If anybody listened to Rush yesterday, he got a call from someone claiming to be part of Obama's secret internet club, and this was the news she was so proud to have dug up. I think Rush describe the "amazing" find as old news and weak also.

If this is all Obama's hit squad has on McCain, that is some pretty weak stuff.

That's kind of good for a laugh, considering that the remark was originally made a campaign issue by the Bush campaign during the 2000 GOP primaries

Oops!

[edit on 6/13/08 by xmotex]