Freshly manufactured caca

It's fun to be an SOB in an argument with a gang of people. You get the attention, you are heard, and you are thought of as a radical. This weekend I went up against a gang of Indians who took protest to the whole Macaca incident. I found it funny, brilliantly covered by Wonkette and Sepia Mutiny.

The topic got boring after everyone agreed on Macaca being a derogatory slur. Time to spice up things, so donned the role of devil's advocate, the Indian George Allen. Here were my arguments:

1) Indians in India rattle out ethnic slurs endlessly. An example: how African students are insulted in Bombay. Nobody protests, nobody is ashamed. It's a huge disgrace. That's even worse than Allen's purported slur, if he meant it.

2) If Indians called other Indians Macaca, it wouldn't be an issue. It's like a generic slur that can be exchanged openly between Indians, but if said by somebody else, it's an issue. That adds up to racial profiling, and it is hypocritical on the people arguing with me, maintaining double standards.

3) Webb, for whom Macaca works, used the incident to gain political advantage over Allen. Did Webb purposely assign Macaca to video Allen? If yes, it worked. Macaca got his new name and Webb's rating in the Virginia polls went up a bit. Webb used Macaca, and Allen gets the blame.

Naturally I got pulped by the crowd for the weak arguments-- it was 5 on 1, not me vs Bush. But, things won't change. Macaca is still Macaca, you, I and even a kitchen table knows that. Even if he lives in the remotest confines of Africa, the Indians will find him. Or George Allen, if he loses the election.