Macaca

Macaca^[1] is a pejorative epithet used by francophone colonialists in Central Africa's Belgian Congo for the native population.^[2] It may be derived from the name of the genus comprising macaque monkeys. The word macaque has also been used as a racial slur. The macaque's genus name, Macaca, is a latinization of the Bantu (Kongo) ma-kako,^[3] meaning "monkey".

In the United States, the term was at the center of a controversy during the 2006 United States Senate election in Virginia when it was used by the Republican incumbent, George Allen. Most Americans were unfamiliar with the term until continual media coverage revealed it to be a racial slur. Allen claims to be unaware of its racial context. Relating to the Allen controversy, "macaca" was named the most politically incorrect word of 2006 by Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that studies word usage.^[4] The word was also a finalist for the American Dialect Society "Word of the Year" that same year.

Related words

• The first European settlers in the Congo Free State derogatively referred to natives as macaques, according to an anonymous Italian account.^[5]
• Later, in the Belgian Congo, colonial whites continued to call Africans macaques and insist that they had only recently come down from trees. The term sale macaque (dirty macaque) was occasionally used as an insult.^[6]
• The word (spelled makak in Dutch or macaque in French) is occasionally used in Belgium (both in Flanders and in Wallonia) as a racial slur, referring not to Congolese but to Moroccan or other North African immigrants or their descendants.
• In the ceremony in 1960 in which Congo gained its independence from Belgium, Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba gave a speech accusing Belgian King Baudouin of presiding over "a regime of injustice, suppression, and exploitation" before ending "We are no longer your macaques", as the Congolese in the audience rose to their feet cheering.^[7]
• In the Adventures of Tintin written by Belgian writer-artist Hergé, Captain Haddock uses the term macaque as an insult, along with other random terms.^[8]
• In a 1994 essay, literary scholar Patrick Colm Hogan discussed the racist symbolism surrounding the name Makak, the protagonist in Derek Walcott's 1967 play Dream on Monkey Mountain.^[9]
• English gossip columnist Taki Theodoracopulos referred to Bianca Jagger, who is of Nicaraguan origin, as macaca mulatta in 1996. Theodoracopulos has frequently used racial slurs in his published work.^[10][11]. Note that Macaca mulatta is the scientific name for the Rhesus monkey.
• The photographer Marc Garanger recounts the use of Macaque as a slur against Algerian women in a 1990 issue of Aperture magazine.^[12]
• Makak, meaning monkey, is also an insult in Haitian Creole implying stupidity or a lack of class.

2006 Virginia Senate race

Former U.S. Senator George Allen points to Webb aide S.R. Sidarth, referring to him as "Macaca."^[13]

The failed re-election campaign of Republican U.S. Senator George Allen of Virginia generated much controversy after he used the word macaca in reference to an Indian American. On August 11, 2006, at a campaign stop in Breaks, Virginia, near the Kentucky border, George Allen twice used the word macaca to refer to S. R. Sidarth, who was filming the event as a "tracker" for the opposing Jim Webb campaign. Prior to this, the term was almost completely unknown in the U.S.

Sidarth is of Indian ancestry, but was born and raised in Fairfax County, Virginia, while Allen is originally from Whittier, California. Allen's mother, born Sarah Lumbroso, is of French Tunisian descent and commentators have suggested that she may have learned the pejorative during her childhood and introduced it to her son. Even though Allen claimed that he made up the word and said that he did not understand its derogatory meaning, it led to a media outcry. After a two-week outpour of negative publicity, Allen publicly apologized for his statement and asserted that he in no way intended those words to be offensive. The term "Macacawitz," referring to the September 2006 discovery of Allen's Jewish heritage, was coined by conservative pundit John Podhoretz and was widely used afterwards. A campaign staffer for Democratic Congressional candidate Al Weed used the phrase and was fired for her comment.

The controversy created by Allen's use of the slur is seen to have turned a seemingly inevitable re-election of Allen into a victory for Webb.

The phrase "Macaca Effect"

While the phrase "macaca effect" originally referenced the Virginia Senate race, it has taken on an entirely new meaning in the high-tech industry. Journalist Liz Davidson writes:

What is the "macaca effect"? First of all, what is a macaca? A "macaca" is a racial pejorative to refer to someone either from or with ancestry from India or Pakistan. And the "macaca effect" is pejorative used by people in high tech to refer to Indians driving down the wages of American and British workers. In many fields (computer programming, engineering, medicine, nursing, accounting, etc.) companies are faking labor shortages to acquire H1B visas and hire Indians, with the net effect of driving down the wages of American and British employees. Thus, one hears disgruntled employees talking about the "macaca effect."^[14]

See also

• Macacawitz

References

External links

• Video of the George Allen (R) slur at YouTube
• Macaca Named Top Politically Incorrect Term of 2006 from Global Language Monitor
• Republicans try to avoid future Macaca moments from www.sajaforum.org
• "What is the 'Macaca Effect'?" by Liz Davidson