Thursday, January 10, 2008

Um, What?
There's a virus going around made of stupid.
New York Attorney General [and Hillary Clinton supporter] Andrew Cuomo used some words with a very troublesome racial history, apparently in reference to Barack Obama. [See update below.]

"[The New Hampshire primary]'s not a TV crazed race. Frankly you can't buy your way into it," Cuomo said, according to Albany Times Union reporter Rick Karlin. He then added, "You can't shuck and jive at a press conference."
No, he didn't catch it from Jesse Jackson, Jr. He caught it from this woman.

I'm nearly speechless. It's not funny, and it's not insightful, to suggest lynching black people, or refer to their speech as a "shuck and jive". This is not a tyranny of political correctness to point out.

[UPDATE: Thanks to Lewberry for this link that shows Cuomo apparently was not referring directly to Obama in his remarks. I think you can argue that there couldn't be anyone else he was thinking of, actively campaigning for Hillary and all....but in any case good to read more of it in context. Still, is there a non-offensive use of "shuck and jive"? I hadn't thought so...but what do I know. Either way, I don't think it will make it into my regular vocabulary.]

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