Nathan Deal ‘ghettoizes’ grannies, gets hammered
October 6, 2009 at 12:20 pm by Scott Henry in NewsBack in May, I used the word “ghetto” in a headline to describe an impoverished, crime-ridden stretch of road in central Atlanta. As a result, I learned the hard way that the word carries so much baggage that readers are turned off merely by seeing it in print, no matter how technically accurate its usage seems to be.
But, as the AJC’s Jim Galloway points out, when a white Georgia Congressman uses the word “ghetto” in a casually dismissive reference to folks who are poor, elderly and presumably black during a campaign stop before an overwhelmingly white audience — well, you’ve got the makings of a Macaca moment.
Congressman Nathan Deal
Just as in the case of now-ex-Virginia Sen. George Allen, who was videotaped making a casually dismissive taunt aimed at the Southeast Asian man holding the video camera, Rep. Nathan Deal was recorded by his opposition telling a Cherokee County crowd about his approach toward requiring proof of citizenship for federal or state health care benefits:
“We got all the complaints of the ghetto grandmothers who didn’t have birth certificates and all that. We wrote some very liberal language as to how you can verify it. My mother was born in 1906 and she didn’t have a birth certificate. They didn’t give birth certificates back then. But we got her one, because you can do it under the proper procedures of your state.”
A video of Deal’s bone-headed statement has been posted to YouTube by the campaign of Secretary of State Karen Handel, who’s running against Deal for the GOP nomination for governor. On Galloway’s blog, the clip has attracted nearly 300 comments, many from readers who characterize Deal’s choice of words as bigoted.
The irony is that Handel’s own officials actions — challenging the citizenship of thousands of newly registered voters, openly opposing the 1965 Voting Rights Act and supporting strict voter ID measures — would seem to indicate an arguably low level of racial and ethnic sensitivity.
But she hasn’t been caught on video. Yet.
(Photo courtesy gop.gov)
October 6th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
It it a slight sign of progress that Handel hasn’t tried to one-up Deal in racial animus?
November 5th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Do white men from the south always use those words in polite conversations? When it comes to race relations, he is a Uniter not a Divider, right? But maybe he thinks he only represents the white populous and the rest be damned.
The meal Deal should join forces with Orly taitz, he is a closeted Birther. Oh wait what this;
Judge Land and now judge Carter, smack down the crazies (case dismissed), poor little Birthers.
Not even “Fake News” Bill O’Reilly believes the crazies, how funny.
http://belowthebeltway.com/2009/10/29/bill-oreilly-slams-orly-taitz/
To all the birthers in La, La Land, it is on you to prove to all of us that your assertion is true (TOUGH WHEN YOU KEEP LOSING CASES), if there are people who were there and support your position then show us the video (everyone has a price), either put up or frankly shut-up.
In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over the most extreme religious right (people who love to push their beliefs on others while trying to take away the rights of those they just hate) and that is who they need to extract from their party if they real want to win. Good Luck, because as they said in WACO, “We Ain’t Coming Out”.
I heard that she now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC).
I wonder if she is a mail order bride, just like her law degree? She is perfect reporter material for “Fake News”, where unfounded rumors and innuendo reign supreme , unlike a our US courts of law, where you need to present documented facts, not half baked lies (prepare for more failures).
A lawyer, dentist, realtor and black belt, WOW I must say a JACK of all trades master of none.