State Senator Kim Hendren (R) of Arkansas (left), a candidate for the U.S. Senator against Democratic incumbent Blanche Lincoln, apologized for referring to Senator Chuck Schumer (D) of New York as "That Jew" at a party meeting.Schumer accepted his apology. Hendren explained the circumstances surrounding his comment to The Tolbert Report:
I don’t use a teleprompter and occasionally I put my foot in my mouth. ...At the meeting I was attempting to explain that unlike Sen. Schumer, I believe in traditional values, like we used to see on ‘The Andy Griffith Show.’ I made the mistake of referring to Sen. Schumer as ‘that Jew’ and I should not have put it that way as this took away from what I was trying to say.”
I don’t use a teleprompter and occasionally I put my foot in my mouth. ...At the meeting I was attempting to explain that unlike Sen. Schumer, I believe in traditional values, like we used to see on ‘The Andy Griffith Show.’ I made the mistake of referring to Sen. Schumer as ‘that Jew’ and I should not have put it that way as this took away from what I was trying to say.”
Apparently Hendren needs a teleprompter to keep him from making ethnic slurs. According to him, the problem with his comment was that it was a distraction from his main point. Wasn't the problem the fact that it was bigoted? Is prejudice one of the traditional values Hendren learned from the sheriff of Mayberry?
2 comments:
As a Jew, I, too, accept Hendren's apology simply because it does me no good not to. Besides, I believe that there is a little bit of healthy prejudice in all of us - call it pride - as long as it is a little bit. I don't believe that his comment alone makes him a bigot. I do think that as a public utterance it was inapropriate and unfortunate, but I personally take very little offense to it.
BTW, about 20 years ago TV Guide named Andy of Mayberry or The Andy Griffith Show as the greatest TV series ever.
MJM: I believe that Hedren's explanations for his slur show that he just doesn't get it.
"The Andy Griffith Show" the greatest TV series ever? Greater than "The Honeymooners"? I don't think so.
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