Jump to content

User:King of Hearts/Admin coaching/AfD/Macacawitz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Macacawitz was a pejorative term used for incumbent U.S. Senator George Allen during the campaign for the United States Senate election in Virginia, 2006. It was a portmanteau of "Macaca," a slur used by Allen on August 11, 2006, and "-witz," a common ending of Ashkenazi Jewish surnames[1][2].

On September 19, John Podhoretz used the name "Felix Macacawitz", referring to Allen's middle name (after his maternal grandfather Felix Lumbroso), as a headline for a post in the National Review blog "The Corner."[3] According to Podhoretz the term "Macacawitz" caught on in political circles almost immediately.[4] On October 4, Meryl Ibis, a field organizer for Democratic congressional candidate Al Weed, resigned after she used the slur in an email to supporters of Weed.[5]

It had been revealed on August 25 that Allen's mother was probably Jewish – she would have been a Tunisian Jew, a Sephardic North African community in which Ashkenazi Jewish surnames are actually virtually non-existent.[6]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Democratic Organizer Quits After Calling Allen 'Macacawitz'". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-05-12.
  2. ^ The Trouble with 'Macacawitz', Julia Gorin, Jewish World Review
  3. ^ Podhoretz, John (2006-09-19). "Felix Macacawitz". The Corner. National Review. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  4. ^ Podhoretz, John (2006-10-05). "Podhoretz gets results!". The Corner. National Review. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  5. ^ Craig, Tim (2006-10-05). "Democratic Organizer Quits After Calling Allen 'Macacawitz'". The Washington Post. p. B02. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
  6. ^ Shear, Michael D. (2006-09-21). "Allen's Mother Revealed Jewish Heritage to Him Last Month". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2010-05-12.

[[Category:Ethnic and religious slurs]] [[Category:Pejorative terms for people]] [[Category:Political controversies in the United States]] [[Category:United States Senate elections in Virginia|2006]] [[Category:United States Senate elections, 2006|Virginia]] {{US-poli-stub}}