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19.3.17 0611
The 7 - Current Events & Politics - College Democrat Prez Uses Racial Slur on LA GOP Canddate
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Grimis
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#1 Posted on 10.10.03 1959.39
Reposted on: 10.10.10 1959.47
Thanks to the Democrats for reminding us that they are, in fact, the party of Diversity and multiculturalism(and before you bitch about the source, this was picked up by Louisiana "mainstream" papers as well). Of course, this was so bad that even his brethren threw him under the bus. The kid apologized for mixing the ethnicities, but nothing else...
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CollegeDems Anger Indian-Americans for Attack on GOP Candidate
(CNSNews.com) - The president of the College Democrats of America is facing criticism from Indian-Americans for "despicable" comments he made about a Louisiana Republican gubernatorial candidate of Indian descent.

In an e-mail Tuesday, College Democrats President Ashley Bell, a law student at Louisiana State University, informed students of the upcoming governor's election between Democrat Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco and former Bush administration official Bobby Jindal, who was born a Hindu.

"On Saturday - we nominated Kathleen Blanco the Lt. Governor to be our nominee to take on Bush's personal 'Do Boy' Bobby Jindal," Bell wrote. "Jindal is Arab American and the Republicans [sic] token attempt to mend bridges long burnt with the Arab American community."

The fact that Bell called Jindal an Arab-American caused alarm, but Indian-Americans told CNSNews.com it was shameful for the College Democrats to label him as a token candidate because of his ethnicity.

"Playing the race card is just despicable," said Harin Contractor, an Indian-American student at the University of Georgia. "If that happened to the Jewish-American community or the African-American community ... there would be a huge backlash. But [Bell] doesn't care because we're Indian-American and we don't matter."

To compound the situation, Bell responded shortly after sending the original e-mail with an apology that Contractor said was even more ignorant.

"In a recent email describing the Republican Nominee in Louisiana Bobby Jindal, I used what local news has termed Arab American - But in Fact Indian American is the politically correct terminology," Bell wrote. "So thank you to the curteous [sic] college dems - who let us know of the terminology mix up."

Contractor, vice president of the university's Indian Cultural Exchange, said he immediately wrote other Indian-Americans, asking them to contact Bell to tell him "ignorance will not be tolerated." Although Arab-Americans and Indian-Americans could potentially be mistaken, Contractor said Bell has no excuse because he attends law school in Louisiana.

When Anna Peediyakkal, former director of the Indian American Center for Political Awareness, saw the e-mail, she said she couldn't believe what was she was reading.

"To marginalize [Jindal] or somehow diminish his work by calling him a token candidate is completely inappropriate," Peediyakkal said. "It's uncalled for. The entire e-mail was egregious."

Jindal is a conservative Republican who was most recently an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and had earlier served as president of the University of Louisiana System. He was also selected as a Rhodes Scholar at age 20.

The Republican candidate won 33 percent of the vote in the governor's race. Because no candidate reached 50 percent, Jindal will meet Blanco, the second-place finisher with 18 percent, in a Nov. 15 runoff election. A recent poll indicates the race is a dead heat.

Jindal's campaign didn't return a call seeking comment, but Tulane University student Chris Meyer, state chairman of the College Republicans, said the candidate wants to stay focused on the issues facing Louisiana.

"It's just ignorance and it's pretty sad that somebody would make claims like that based on Bobby's skin color," Meyer said of Bell's e-mail.

The College Republican National Committee, however, pounced on Bell's comments, calling the College Democrats a "laughing stock within the party of political correctness."

"This is just typical liberal spin trying to throw race into it to bring down the opposition or to bring themselves up," spokesman David Joyslin said. "As Republicans, we don't care about race. We just look at the person's stance on the issues and if they're going to be a good candidate."

Indian-Americans, meanwhile, want Bell to acknowledge his mistake and offer a sincere apology. Peediyakkal called Bell's first apology a "joke." She said it made the situation worse.

Neither Bell nor students affiliated with the College Democrats in Louisiana responded to requests for comment. National spokesman Aaron Thompson, a student at Westminster College in Utah, said the organization sends out e-mails to students every day. He acknowledged this one contained a mistake.

"It generally wasn't a typical e-mail per se . It was something actually that had some problems," Thompson said. "Unfortunately a mistake was made in the text that was sent from Ashley."

Contractor said he was glad to see the campus' Young Democrats repudiate Bell's comments. Billy Joyner, the group's president, downplayed the matter. He said the campus group would meet with Indian-American students to apologize.

"Ashley right now is at LSU, he's from Louisiana, and he's mixed up in this governor's race," Joyner said. "I think there was some emotion in his comments and he didn't think them through. Ashley Bell is a good person. He is a wonderful leader, and he is very caring and thoughtful."

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OlFuzzyBastard
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#2 Posted on 10.10.03 2015.52
Reposted on: 10.10.10 2016.15
He mixed up Arab-Americans and Indian-Americans, and suggested he was a token cantidate, but there was no racial slur in there.
Big Bad
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#3 Posted on 10.10.03 2025.21
Reposted on: 10.10.10 2025.29
I think actually referring to him as a 'token' counted as the slur.
Grimis
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#4 Posted on 10.10.03 2028.18
Reposted on: 10.10.10 2028.19
    Originally posted by OlFuzzyBastard
    and suggested he was a token cantidate

Um...that's not racial? Have you seen his resume, incidentally.

- Rhodes Scholar at 20
- Secretary, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals at age 24
- President of the Louisiana University System at age 27
- Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

And now he's 32 and the GOP nominee for governor. How is he a "token." Hell, he might be President one day with his accomplishments.

(edited by Grimis on 10.10.03 2128)
Pool-Boy
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#5 Posted on 10.10.03 2041.47
Reposted on: 10.10.10 2042.14
So the Democrats accused the GOP overhyping a non-white guy, to make it seem like they were more ethnically diverse.

Isn't this the very same behavior that got Rush publically ROASTED for over a week ago?

Of course they don't see the hypocricy...

I for one don't think there is anything wrong with making the suggestion (if they had proof to back it up), but maxing up the guy's race in a rush to play the race card is pretty disgusting.

(edited by Pool-Boy on 10.10.03 1843)
OlFuzzyBastard
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#6 Posted on 10.10.03 2114.27
Reposted on: 10.10.10 2114.41
    Originally posted by Pool-Boy
    So the Democrats accused the GOP overhyping a non-white guy, to make it seem like they were more ethnically diverse.

    Isn't this the very same behavior that got Rush publically ROASTED for over a week ago?


I never said I agree with them, but it's still not an ethnic slur. "Nigger" is an ethnic slur. "Kike" is an ethnic slur. "Chink" is an ethnic slur. "Raghead" is an ethnic slur. "Token cantidate" is not an ethnic slur.

(edited by OlFuzzyBastard on 10.10.03 2214)
Gugs
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#7 Posted on 10.10.03 2131.52
Reposted on: 10.10.10 2132.03
    Originally posted by Grimis
      Originally posted by OlFuzzyBastard
      and suggested he was a token cantidate

    Um...that's not racial?


I agree that it's racial and wrong to say that he's a token candidate, but it wasn't a slur. Also, who in the blue hell names their son Ashley? Johnny Cash never wrote about a boy named Ashley.
spf
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#8 Posted on 11.10.03 0131.03
Reposted on: 11.10.10 0131.10
Calling someone a "token" implies that they are not in and of themselves qualified to get the post they are getting. If I had some coals, this CD guy would get raked over them right along with Rush. I know some folks won't believe it, but personally I don't like either side using race-baiting techniques like that.

This does bring up something though that interests me....how much longer are the two parties going to be able to pretty much not pay any attention to the Indian and the Arab voting blocks in this country? In both cases you are dealing with a fairly affluent, intelligent population whose power could go out of proportion to their size (akin to the Jewish vote) if they ever truly organized and one party or the other got to them. When I was working for the GOP a long time ago I tried to get our party to do outreach to these groups, as socially they could easily trend strongly GOP if the Republicans would just ask and not use the word "Judeo-Christian country" so much ;)
MoeGates
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#9 Posted on 11.10.03 0142.52
Reposted on: 11.10.10 0142.56
Politicians only pay attention to the Jewish vote in about 10 states. Why? Jews only live in about 10 states. Nobody goes after the Jewish vote in Idaho.

Same with any other constituency, including Arabs. Arabs are a significant percentage of the voting population in 2 states - Michigan and New Jersey - and you will see politicians pay attention to that voting block in those two states.

The other thing Arabs have going for them is that they're a true swing vote - I think they went for Bush 55%-45% in the last election. You're going to be hard pressed to find another demographic that's that close.

What Arabs have going against them is that they don't yet have the amount of citizens that many other groups do. In 20 years or so they'll probably be much more powerful.

I could give you a long essay on why the Arab community is really screwing up it's potential political leverage.
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