How Come McCain's "Gook" Slur Isn't Bigger News?

I want to know: Who is the real John McCain?

This past Sunday, when Colin Powell appeared on Meet the Press to endorse Barack Obama, he also made sure to give his friend John McCain the benefit of the doubt in the wake of an increasingly race-baited campaign by bitter surrogates and running mates. But even as he described his frustration with the ugly rancor of some of his fellow Republicans, Powell affirmed that, "John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know."

Well, Mr. Powell, does McCain saying "I hate the gooks" change your mind at all? The sunken story around the Republican presidential nominee's statement eight years ago -- to which I can't seem to find a public apology for -- seems to lie pretty buried in the media, including on the Huffington Post. There are several mentions of it on this site (click here, here, and here), but nothing seems to have gotten much traction (Those HuffPo articles have only about 35 comments between them) and most articles point only to the original San Francisco Chronicle story back in February 2000.

To say the silence around this racist statement is dumbfounding is an understatement. I just recently stumbled upon this graphic on the website Angry Asian Man and immediately posted something about the quote. And there is a new book that builds the case against McCain for a history of racial insensitivity. It also hasn't gone completely unnoticed by the right. Rush Limbaugh noted an alleged video of McCain uttering the phrase. But mostly, the story just seems to be at a low simmer. (Is Obama planning an October surprise with that video?)

Perhaps the subtle inclination is to give McCain a pass since it's not atypical for some scarred Vietnam vets to harbor the term for their wartime enemy -- and nobody really wants to call these guys racists. It's just like their father's use of "Jap" to describe World War II Japanese soldiers and citizens, terminology pretty much accepted as the spoils of war. I mean, dude's a pre-boomer, and those guys just sometimes say things like that, right? Anyway. And while the term shouldn't ever be acceptable, it should absolutely disqualify a presidential candidate. (Where the hell is Asian American conservative and self-hating firebrand Michelle Malkin, who finally has an opportunity to do the right thing?)

I don't want to think that the tolerance for racism against Vietnamese and other Asians is higher, but it seems to be. I would be just another blogger in the bunch, barking loudly, if McCain had uttered the word nigger or kike. But gook, and I've got to dig to find any major media discussion already in progress. And before anybody jumps to call this gotcha journalism, save it. This isn't a drunken, private rant by some radio shock jock, it's from a man running as the leader of the Republican Party, and the chief global policy job. McCain wants to be the Bridge Builder-in-Chief. This man would decide how we interact with a dozen Asian nations -- several of which we've fought wars against -- not to mention a growing Asian American population. You don't need me to explain how anybody capable of reducing a group of humans to a hateful, insulting caricature isn't fit to govern in the 21st Century. Do you?

But something is holding this story back. Meanwhile, the mainstream media is quick to be distracted by "God damn America" and "typical white person." Is it, like my friend Diana says, in a resigned, obviously facetious tone, "Maybe we all kinda hate the gooks." Man, is that it? Maybe we haven't collectively forgiven the Vietnamese for driving us out of their country after nearly 60,000 American deaths. Maybe we've all grown up watching too many Vietnam War movies where the white G.I. is just a nice Midwestern kid trying to do good, and the screaming pajama-wearing Asian guerrilla is the murderous devil incarnate. God, I hope she's wrong.

I have been on a number of blogs that discuss Asian American grievances, and they often reference the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin, killed in a hate crime by two Detroit autoworkers (a 25-year-old story that's probably news to most of you). Chin's story, rarely part of any discussion of hate crimes, is finally surfacing in a film. The arguments on these blogs usually contend that racist crimes, bigotry and insensitivity against Americans of Asian descent are still more allowable in society. Compared to epithets and offensive remarks and stereotyping against blacks, Hispanics and Jews, cultural affronts on Asians and Asian Americans rarely get too high on the food chain. The missed McCain Gook story would seem to bear that out. How else can you explain it?

Follow Raymond Leon Roker on Twitter: www.twitter.com/raymondroker

Comments

[Noir Kiss3]

Great article.
I hadn't heard of this until recently and was shocked that this hasn't made bigger news.(especially with "liberal MSM") His equivocation that he doesn't mean all Vietnamese is similar to those that use the N word but say "I only mean certain blacks."
No candidate that had gone on record with a similar statement using the N word would even be taken seriously. Even though it was said a mere 8 years before a few people have said it was a "while ago".
My question would be this:What is the statute of limitations on hate?????

[XME]

Why? Because...he's a POW. Isn't that why he can say pretty much anything?

[anon-e-mus]

I think your fears are dead on – we as a society still tolerate racism against Asians and Asian-Americans. I spent several years working in ½ hour television; I worked on a mainstream network TV show and a mildly racist joke had been written with the punchline referring to a Mexican. The Network censors (standards & practices) would not let that joke pass as written – they knew they would get countless complaints from the Latino population; they suggested that the writers change the punchline to “Chinese” because “the Asians don’t complain”.

[clara2008]

We should think about how Asian-Americans are branded as the "model minority", and how this discourse of "model minority" is used against other minorities, fomenting racial tension amongst minorities. So, the important issue here is not about Asian-Americans not raising their voices against insults (i.e. blaming them for somehow "not standing up" for their rights, but rather thinking about how racial categories and stereotypes are used to seal any possible productive conversation about difference and identity. John McCain's insult about "gooks" resonate not only with many white Americans but also other minorities. The question is: Why? How is racial tension generated and sustained, not only in terms of white vs. black, but amongst all racial and ethnic groups?

[RumiSouth]

The silliest aspect to this is the way Asians are lumped together for hatred. Chinese and Japanese and Koreans and Vietnamese are as different as Italians, Poles, Irish, and French.

[namdle]

Don't most people see descendants of Italians, Poles, Irish, and French in America as, um, white people?

[namdle]

I'm an Asian-American (Vietnames­e-American­, too!), and I'd like to say that it's not necessarily a "McCain problem." It's not a media problem, either, at least exclusively. It's merely a symptom of a (dismissive?) unspoken racism that is both pervasive in American culture, and really almost accepted by Asian-American culture. How often do we see assimilation as the ultimate standard bearer for Asian Americans? A "gook," in this context I'd argue, strictly alludes to those images of savage fighters in jungles against the All-American Army. This is in line with American pop culture, where we're shown that to be fully Asian is a fault, and to be partly Asian is the latest accessory! (Chinese tats, Lucy Liu's white parents in every movie, P.F. Chang's, Gwen Stefani's bizarre career trajectory).

I'm an avid Obama supporter, and I'm glad he/media didn't harp on this with McCain. A lot of people say 'HE'S GOT ISSUES.' Yeah, no kidding. He trained, fought, and was tortured by (North) Vietnamese. What if he is a little racist? I can forgive that. Does it disqualify him as president? Probably, but not as a decent person. Do we blame old black men from the 30s, 40s, or 50s when they voice their frustration, and yes, even hatred for the White America? No, not really. We don't condone it, but we understand it.

Now if Palin says anything even close to this, all bets are off. =)

[SColbert]

As a fellow Asian American, i think that this statement should not disqualify McCain to be a President. BUT, I do not want a racist president!!! This joker is somehow supposed to bring the nation together??

[egal]

Apparently, we DON'T accept it, let alone understand it, when old black people make comments about the way they were treated and the evils they find in American government, politics, and people. Or else there would BE no "Reverend Wright issue".

Sure, anybody with a brain and any social awarenes to speak of knows better than to get incensed at the oldsters' ingrained racism, however it rankles. But, instead, we have a society that both jumps on their atavistic viewpoints and senses of oppression and also permits the current, flagrant usage of ethnic background-, skin color-, nation of origin-, and religion-based slurs.

If our nation were as great as the GOP claims it is, they would be locked away for their criminally usurious nepotism, fear-mongering, and disenfranchisement.

If anything should disqualify somebody for president, then playing up some of our peoples' fears and prejudices in order to gain rabid followings blind to the merits of the "other" should do it. And McCain incites these fears to the point where they're so tangible his followers are asking for the death of a patriotic opponent, attacking people because of their name, skin color, or religion, ironically calling everyone who disagrees with their decidedly unAmerican beliefs "unAmerican".

This makes McCain's slips of the tongue, his evidence of bigotry, more than fair topics when it is part of a pattern of oppression, no matter how he dresses up this hatred and supremacy.

[Falada]

Surely you meant "scarred" veterans, not "scared" ones?

[iyamchazz]

Hate rides a pale horse.

[RobinSeattle]

As someone who has lived in Asia and speaks an Asian language, I give McCain a pass here (even though the Vietnamese in the U.S. are overwhelmingly Republican, especially in Orange County, CA, home of Little Saigon). When you get tortured by Vietnamese military is only a natural reaction to hate them. It is a nasty slur (and the origin of it, ironically, was Korean anyway from a bastardization of the word "miguk," a standard non-racist term for "American"), but you got to be real and recognize human nature.

It's also why I give British veterans who fought in places such as Burma and India against the Japanese when they start spouting racist terminology toward Japanese a pass, too. British POWs were treated extremely cruelly and their reaction is understandable even as offensive as I find those slurs to be.

[jdmba]

So, by extension, then you understand exactly why Reverend Wright said the things he said, and you don't hold it against him.

I'm glad to hear someone who isn't ignoring history.

[DoTheMath]

While we're at it, how about giving him credit for calling his wife the c-word? It has been mentioned repeatedly, but I would think that little comment, together with his sick sexist "jokes," his treatment of his first wife, his selection of a running mate who still thinks, even after fumbling this same question in a debate, that the VP is "in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes" - thus proving that he selected a token woman, never dreaming he could actually find a qualified one - I would think that these indications of his attitude toward women would warrant an article or two on that topic. Look, his first wife, second wife, and VP pick have all been beauty contestants or fashion models. What does that tell you about his attitude toward women?

[bowthai]

Thanks for the article, Mr. Roker. I'd heard this story before, and I think the Obama campaign is putting a lid on it for practical purposes, among other things. Publicizing this would probably give the Republicans license to dredge up Biden's cultural missteps. Others will argue (unfairly, in my opinion) that Obama's playing the race card. But you bring up a good point, and that is offensive remarks against Asians too often get a free pass. Even when such comments make the news (e.g. Shaq, Matthew McConaughey), the whole affair ends quietly with an obligatory apology, and no one bothers to examine the misperceptions that inspired the comments in the first place.

[bigurt]

I would have to agree with nomequietbe on "I hate" being the worst part about his statement. I think the funniest part about McCain's statement is that he didnt even use the right slur. Gooks originated from the Korean War because in the Korean language, they call themselves "han guk saram". So instead of lashing out his hatred at the wrong Asian group, he really should learn his proper slurs or just let bygones be bygones.

Just another instance of him being out of touch haha

[mergina]

McCain can do nothing right, but i simply do not understand why that would be surprising ANYONE?

[lejman]

no need to pander in this direction. pro america excludes them anyway.

[EngineerBill]

After reading the SF Gate article, it made the slur understandable. Understandable is not the same as correct. The fact is it looks like Obama is going to win and win big. The key difference between the Obama campaign and Kerry's campaign is that Obama, with a clear throat answered the smears hurled at him while Kerry ignored them. Obama fought back. But he also showed the temperament to stay focused on the issues that worry Americans. What McCain did was wrong. But here is my point.
Obama's campaign may not have been perfect. But overall it has put him on the verge of capturing the presidency with a three hundred plus electoral college majority. No need to do anything different now.