Senator Joe Biden made a really stupid and seemingly racist comment that is running in the Feb. 5, 2007 The New York Observer about Senate colleague Barack Obama.  He said. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

I take issue with the "mainstream" part of his comment as much as the "clean" part.  Some people would argue that it is just ‘old out-of-touch white man speak’ rather than racist.  Maybe, but either way it’s pretty bad.

It did however remind me of some of my other favorite racist rants.  Here are a few, two were said while on California soil:

Back in July 2004 then-Education Secretary Richard Riordan told a little girl at a Santa Barbara library reading program that her name, Isis, "means stupid, dirty girl."  After she asked him if he knew what it meant.  The girl was white–but I am not sure Riordan knew that.

In February 2001 then-Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante was talking to a group largely made up of black union members during Black History Month and said the word "nigger" during his speech.

Not quite as bad but equally entertaining, was when in 1992 Ross Perot was speaking to the NAACP and referred to the crowd as "you people" and "your people".

Some people would say that we Americans are just too hyper-sensitive when it comes to issues like race.  A slip of the tongue should be seen as just that.  I am not sure.

However, Biden et al remind us that word choice matters.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.