As two black bloggers in the Virginia political blogsphere, we bring a unique perspective to the conversation regarding race that swirls around us. Each of our families have been in Virginia for more than 150 years, so we are well acquainted with the both with Virginia’s sordid past and its slow, steady move towards inclusion that has occurred in our lifetimes.
It comes as no surprise to us, then, that both candidates have used racial epithets in the past. To argue otherwise is to deny the realities of life in Virginia and our country. Inquiries into such behavior serve to shine light on those incidents and provide an opportunity for discerning whether they hold such sentiments today. It is not an irrelevant conversation, nor is it the only thing that matters in determining who should be the next junior senator from Virginia.
Some have used this inquiry as a opportunity to throw around racial epithets themselves. We contend that doing so is reflective of a lack of racial sensitivity that both candidates have indicated that they lacked in the past. Further, we contend that this desensitizes the readers to the real issues of race that are still with us. We find such behavior unacceptable and implore our colleagues to refrain from engaging in such behavior.
While campaigns are willing to exploit the issue of race (and its companion issues of ethnicity and gender), the Virginia political blogsphere should not be so eager to do so. To call for a complete end to such a discussion would be not only naive but hypocritical of us, and we are not proposing that. What we do ask is that the level of discourse be raised a notch, always mindful of the possible effects of such polarizing rhetoric not only through November 7 but beyond.
Vivian J. Paige
Conaway B. Haskins III
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I applaud you trying to clean up the mess that the Left of Center bloggers are creating in our Commonwealth, but I don’t think you guys are going far enough.
If Right of Center Bloggers were “carrying on” like our counterparts, we would have been taken to the “wood shed” from the Get Go, and of course “branded” as racists or worst!
Vivian (and Conaway)
Thank you for reminding us what this race is really about — electing the candidate who we feel will best represent Virginia. I’ll be the first to admit that I have joined the crowd of bloggers from both sides of the aisle who have drawn attention to the opposing candidates controversial past statements –although I tried (perhaps unsuccessfully) to relate the comments to current issues. In the future, however, my posts will focus on other issues. After all, there seems to be enough commentary on the subject as it is.
Spank,
The most boring, self-serving thing anybody can say in this context is — “The other side started it. The other side is saying bad things, my side is saying only good things.”
Who is fooled by such childish denials?
Vivian, Conaway, you and I all know what’s been going on here. I’m not going to waste my time looking up all the trash that Allen’s defenders has posted. Instead, I’ll give you this one link, along with one point about it:
If you don’t know how stupid and mean it was for the so-called A-Team to post this sort of claptrap (http://allens-a-team.com/2006/09/24/webbs-inspiration-for-the-anti-miller-flier/) on Rosh Hashanah, then in spite of what you might think, you need to learn a lot more about the history of 20th century political art.
Kilo mentioned on Conaway’s blog that the timing of the letter could have been a bit earlier (a point that only has gravity thanks to hindsight).
Regardless, this is an excellent letter I hope we all read. THANK YOU FOR WRITING IT!!!
Vivian, Kellam plead guilty to hitting a woman. He is running for Congress — to represent 650,000 people in a truly historic place.
Is this a race to the lowest common demoninator? Can’t we do better? What elese has he done.
Phil Kellam is a silver-spooned, spoiled brat who has never had anybody tell him NO. He thinks he can get away with anything. Do you agree that he can?
How about some intellectual honesty?
Way to simply assume that all the accusations are true in the spirit of trying to sound even handed. Sometimes, evenhandedness is just laziness. It’s easiest to just declare “a pox on all their houses they are both as bad.” But often, it’s not very accurate or fair. Next time, when you want to call for civility? Try not getting engaged in the debate by taking a position on the validity of all accusations and treating them as equally credible.
Terry:
RK and co. decided to make the “reach” and drag Senator Allen’s mother into this fray.. and then continue the attack by even bringing her religion into it!
I think I am on pretty solid ground there.. they simply could have said, “and Senator Allen speaks french”, and we can suppose that macaca is just the basic curse words you learn in high school or college? They are directly implicating his mother taught him to call everyone he sees with a dark complexion macaca….
That my friend, is simply going to far… I am willing to bet that you punched fellow class mates in the nose for talking about your mother?
Chris, you seem to conveniently ignore the GOP dirty hands in all of these things. What, were Democrats supposed to simply let the macaca thing slide? Lord knows your folks wouldn’t have. Otherwise, you’d have dropped the sexism thing.
Actually, that word was not the issue for me – the “Welcome to America…Real World of Virginia” thing was. Even Allen’s explanation of that was bogus – Jim Webb’s people are from SWVA and he even wrote Born Fighting with scenes from a recent trip to SWVA. But, the senator says that Jim was “never” there. Playing fast and loose with words is what gets him in trouble.
If you and yours’ commit to stop doing these things, then you have leg to stand on. Otherwise, when you try to spank that donkey, expect Democrats to poach some elephant hide.
TimeKeeper – not sure what Kellam did has anything to do with this post, but I’ll be commenting on it later.
Spank – nobody died and left Conaway and me in charge of the lefty blogs 😆
plunge – maybe I’m dense but I have no idea what you are trying to say 😕 😕
They are directly implicating his mother taught him to call everyone he sees with a dark complexion macaca….
Not only have I never implied that or inferred it, but until somebody mentioned that on some other blog a few days ago (I don’t remember when or where), the thought simply never crossed my mind. To know a word is not to endorse its usage. To teach a word is not to endorse its usage. My mother taught me to swear in French when I was four. (We were living in Europe at the time.) I was gonna hear the words and wonder what they meant, so better to teach them to me up front.
Perhaps my experience is unusual, and prevents me from getting a proper perspective on this. But I just cannot comprehend the “you’re slandering his mama” angle.
Great letter.
Now, can we look at Allen’s record in public office? He obviously hasn’t done anything to indicate that he’s a racist in nearly 30 years in public office. We should be examining his public record, it’s the best indicator of what he will do in the future in the Senate.
Conaway:
We should just leave candidates mothers out of political races, that is all I am saying… As far as the GOP hitting back they are, and come to find out the Webb Campaign ultimately looks like the loser in this affair, because they do not really know their candidate do they?
I am speaking of Jim “driveby” Webb…(are Dems now saying, we wouldn’t have had these problems if Harris Miller was our man?)
VJP: If only you two were in charge 🙂 You know I really mean the far left of center people. I stand corrected.
Waldo: The next loser of a war in Europe has to keep the french….and their habits of cursing in front of four year olds…
Do you know what french military tradition started at Yorktown, VA?
Fighting to the last American Soldier, they have been doing it ever since!
One of the great lessons I’ve learned–not only in politics but in all of life–is that on issues of race relations, we all lack the capacity to intuitively understand one another, not because of willful and disrespectful ignorance, but simply because the framework we use to understand the universe is so profoundly different.
I was dating a girl who was half-Korean a while back, and she had just come home distraught, telling me that she had an “ethnic epiphany.” She realized on the bus ride home from work that she looked different from everyone else, and it made her feel very alone and alienated.
I went to comfort her, and opened my mouth to say “I understand” when I realized that I really don’t. As a white male, I’ve never felt like I looked different from everyone else; even when I was living in South America, surrounded by ethnic Latinos, I didn’t feel like I was different from everyone else, I felt like everyone else was different from me. We lack the perspective on what it means to be a minority (and I daresay that minority individuals may lack the framework to understand what it’s like to be white).
That’s why it’s so important for us to have useful, productive dialogues about racial and ethnic issues in America today. Racial divides are not going to be bridged intuitively; it’s a matter of communication and outreach. That’s why I applaud you, Vivian, for sharing your perspective on this issue, and it’s why I frequently stop by this blog to find out what your take is on today’s issues.
Thank you for sharing that with us.
anon -thank you for your kind words. I’m so glad that you appreciate my Efforts.
anon:
I don’t feel that far left bloggers are sensitve to my feelings… what should I do?