tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post7732048745455194682..comments2024-03-18T22:21:33.261-07:00Comments on The Debate Link: The SpaniardDavid Schraubhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04946653376744012423noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-43872894633760795212008-02-02T09:57:00.000-08:002008-02-02T09:57:00.000-08:00anonymous,It's a joke, and of course meant to be a...anonymous,<BR/><BR/><I>It's a joke, and of course meant to be an unflattering one, but because it's so brief it's possible to read any number of meanings into it.</I><BR/><BR/>How does it work as an unflattering joke unless there's something inherently unflattering about being named Juan, about being Mexican?<BR/><BR/>The "Sen. Clinton (D-Punjab)" was an unflattering joke when issued from the Obama camp (albeit one that Clinton herself originated) because of course it is a bad thing to be representing the interests of a foreign state in the U.S. Senate instead of one's own.<BR/><BR/>Jokes mean something, and they often tell us a lot more about the person telling the joke than about the subject of the joke.<BR/><BR/><I>I originally smirked when I heard it because I thought it was a play on how he was half Mexican and half American. I don't know if I really could tell what else it meant.</I><BR/><BR/>What do you mean, "how he was half Mexican"? McCain's only tie to Mexico is that (according to Wikipedia) his parents were married in Tijuana. His mother is a distant relative of George Washington; his father comes from a line of U.S. Navy admirals. McCain was born on a U.S. military base in Panama, which technically qualifies as being born on U.S. soil.<BR/><BR/>I guess racism really is just part of ignorance.PGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09381347581328622706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7321349.post-76018714825939896642008-02-01T19:18:00.000-08:002008-02-01T19:18:00.000-08:00Many people have said that to say Juan McCain is i...Many people have said that to say Juan McCain is intrinsically racist. I don't agree. It's a joke, and of course meant to be an unflattering one, but because it's so brief it's possible to read any number of meanings into it.<BR/><BR/>I originally smirked when I heard it because I thought it was a play on how he was half Mexican and half American. I don't know if I really could tell what else it meant. <BR/><BR/>You could rely, I guess, on the tone of the source post to determine any racist intent. <BR/><BR/>But it seems too open. To me it just meant more about McCain than anything about the author or 'spreader' of the joke.<BR/><BR/>RedState just banned any such Hispanic neologizing (nuevologizing?). I can see their point. (They're a pretty authoritarian bunch over there, and their commenters don't like it.)<BR/><BR/>So I wouldn't agree with Lefties or RedState staff who say it's intrinsically racist. I would, however, agree that it lowers the level of dialogue. But that's a different beast. Almost everything on the net does THAT, I think.<BR/><BR/>Lastly, I guess you could say that it's stupid to use language so open to interpretation, and I'd agree. But I just don't get the leap to auto-racist hermeneutics, here.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com