Sticks and stones may break my bones...(Pic: AP)
Senator Jake Knotts seems to enjoy labeling people in a most distasteful way.
The South Carolina state senator called a Republican gubernatorial candidate of Indian descent a “raghead”, on a political talk show. Then he went on to refer to Obama:
“We’ve already got a raghead in the White House, we don’t need another raghead in the governor’s mansion.”
He later apologized, saying that his slurs were meant as a joke. Well, not many people are buying his explanation. Seanna Adcox of AP (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37518532/ns/us_news/) writes:
“Joke or not, his comments echoed some of the racially tinged attacks on Obama by far-right ideologues who question his U.S. citizenship or his Christianity, by noting his father was Kenyan and he lived as a boy in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country.
“”Raghead” is a derogatory term used for people of Middle Eastern or Indian descent, or for Muslims, deriving from stereotypes about turbans and other national headwear.”
Knotts...lambasted for his remarks. (Pic:AP)
Sometimes, the mind boggles at the way some public officials conduct themselves. A holder of public office is expected to act with a certain decorum, and intelligence in public life.
Knotts’ defenders said that the senator is known for speaking his mind. Yes, it’s perfectly fine to speak your mind, or criticize, on policies and actions. But for a public official to call others, especially the President, by a racial slur is a new low.
