Greg Pollowitz and John J. Miller have been covering a story that the media is completely ignoring: Virginia Senate candidate James Webb’s use of the word “towel-head” in an interview in with the Washington Post today:
“Every movie needs a villain,” Webb says. He could let the statement end there, but instead, he does a strange thing. In the midst of a Senate race marked by accusations of racial insensitivity on both sides, he says this:
“Towel-heads and rednecks — of which I am one. If you write that word, please say that. I mean, I don’t use that pejoratively, I use it defensively. Towel-heads and rednecks became the easy villains in so many movies out there.”
Later, Webb’s press secretary learns of this quote, and the next day Webb is calling a reporter from a fundraiser in Atlanta:
“I used the words that are used to stereotype them,” he says, adding that he was using both terms “defensively.” “I’m really upset if this is going to end up being the guppy that eats the whale here.”
I’m the last person who wants to be the PC language police around here, but can anyone imagine the media’s reaction if George Allen said something like this? As Tim Graham points out, the number of Post articles, news stories and editorial features with the word “Macaca” in them is up to 92!