WP: VA Democratic Senatorial Candidate Webb Denies Using Word as Epithet

[DeepModem Mom]

Webb Denies Ever Using Word as Epithet
Racial Slur Overshadowing All Else in Contest
By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 28, 2006; Page B01

RICHMOND, Sept. 27 -- Democratic Senate candidate James Webb on Wednesday sought to explain remarks he had made a day earlier, in which he refused to say whether he had used the "N-word," but he insisted he has never used it as a racial epithet aimed at anyone.

"I don't think that there's anyone who grew up around the South that hasn't had the word pass through their lips at one time in their life," he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Tuesday. "If you read 'Fields of Fire,' that word and a lot of other words are in the book." "Fields of Fire" is a novel Webb wrote about the Vietnam War.

Spokeswoman Kristian Denny Todd said Webb, an author and former Marine, "did not want to make any blanket statements that he has never, ever uttered the word. Jim has not used the word directed at another person. He's never used it himself as a racial slur."...

***

Webb's comments to the Times-Dispatch prompted Allen campaign officials to direct a reporter to Dan Cragg, a former acquaintance of Webb's, who said Webb used the word while describing his own behavior during his freshman year at the University of Southern California in the early 1960s....Cragg, 67, who lives in Fairfax County, said on Wednesday that Webb described taking drives through the black neighborhood of Watts, where he and members of his ROTC unit used racial epithets and pointed fake guns at blacks to scare them....

***

"He said it's not true. It's not even close to being true," Todd said. She quoted Webb as saying: "In 1963, you couldn't go to Watts and do that kind of thing. You'd get killed. So of course I didn't do it. I would never do that. I would never want to do that."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/27/AR2006092702062.html

[MikeNearMcChord]

1. If you went after every Tom, Dick Or Harry

who used a racial slur at one time or another in their life, I doubt the number of innocent people would fit the size of an American mid size city. Even if Webb did, it is nowhere near the level of miscues of Felix, try again RW.

[babylonsister]

2. It's getting really ugly out there, isn't it. Allen's trying

to shift blame, and heat.

[auburngrad82]

9. I think it was meant as a trap

Someone in Allen's staff read the Webb book and knew the word was in the book. They wanted Webb to deny ever using the word, which Webb didn't fall for. In fact, he pointed out that he used it in the book. Good move on his part, I think.



Liberal bumper stickers

[bluestateguy]

3. Here we go: The Muddy Waters defense

"Well Allen may have said it, but you know some people have said that Webb said it too at some unspecified time in the past, soooo, let's just forget about it"

One needs to ask if the Senate should even seat someone who uses such language, never mind what Virginia voters say.

[efhmc]

4. Odd thing about that. I grew up in E. Texas where it was said a lot.

However, I was told by my mother that one NEVER used this word because it was offensive. She never said that those who used the word were trashy people but I definitely got that inference.

[babylonsister]

7. I grew up in NY; my mom drilled that into me as well. nt

[Tempest]

5. What did he use it as then?

An example? An illustration?

Allen is doing himself worse damage. He should just come clean.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. I was confused myself for a while: this accusation is against Webb. nt

[auburngrad82]

8. What if I said this?

I just watched That Nigger's Crazy. Richard Pryor was a comic genius and he'll be missed.

I used the word but not as an epitaph.

If the word was in Webb's book (a great novel about the Vietnam War that I read years ago) then it was not used as a racial epitaph. It's a good thing that Webb brought up the fact that it's in the book because if he said "I've never used the word," then Felix can turn around and say "but you used it right here on page 250!"

[fob]

16. Growing up in the midwest we shouted "niggerpile" right before

we would jump all into a pile while playing hide and go seek. It was just a word at that time. I didn't connect it to a slur until much later on in life. Along the lines of learning that the following are also racist and/or have bad connotations;

wait a cotton-pickin' minute
I got gypped (who knew this was a slur aainst gypsies!)

Anyway, the end result is live, LEARN and grow beyond chldish behavior. Allen appears to follow live and LEARN new ways to use slurs.


Oh, and TAG YOU'RE IT!!!

[LibDemAlways]

10. George Allen has more racial skeletons in his closet

than you'd find in the average cemetary. This is his campaign's pitiful attempt to deflect attention from his decades of well-documented racism. Reporters are working on the racist graffiti incident now that I've mentioned many times on DU. You haven't heard the last of Allen's racism. Not by a longshot.

[auburngrad82]

11. Is this the Dan Cragg mentioned as the source?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Cragg

He's a member of the NRA and has had tons of stuff in the Moonie Times. That and the fact that all of his books are "special ops" war books make me think he leans to the right.



Liberal bumper stickers

[DeepModem Mom]

13. I'll bet that's a BINGO! And I'll bet he's firmly planted on the Right.

Thanks for your research.

[Diogenes2]

12. Hey, I just got through rereading my first edition...

of Dick Gregory's book "nigger"! Fantastic! Oops, I guess now I'm the moral equivalent of someone who stuck a severed deer's head in some black people's mailbox. My bad!

"Dear Momma--Wherever you are, if ever you hear the word "nigger" again, remember they are advertising my book."
--Dick Gregory's 1964 dedication

[lumpy]

14. Sickening that the use of the 'word' helped

to exonerate O.J.Simpson from the commission of murder. Webb is to be commended to tell the truth regarding his use of the word nigger. I am still hearing it being used in a derogatory manner. It might very well be the most troubling word in US vocabulary.

[PaDem]

15. In other words..........

he's used the word multiple times. So hard to get genuinely good people to run for office these days.

[N90ATC]

17. In Webb's Defense...

Maybe it was when he was a Republican!

[PaDem]

19. true, maybe he thought he had to use that word to.........

get in the good graces of the movers and shakers in his party. That's no excuse, but I see how this can be spun effectively.

[toughboy]

18. This is kinda strange

Most people where I live are black or hispanic and I hear the word frequently. What surprised me was to hear white guys on the street using it back and forth with blacks. We live in Jersey in a part where you have to pay a realtor up front 50% commission before they'll let you get a place that you had to locate. Even the lawyer reminded us that we were buying in a "mixed" neighborhood. I had to ask what that meant. Maybe it's more common to hear among younger people? It doesn't seem like anybody says it to cut anyone down but it's one of those words that my parents let us all know that we would get seriously thrashed if we ever said. So I just don't use the word. I can tell real easily though if someone has a problem with black people, and I usually can't not say something to them about it being just stupid and worng, but my wife tells me just to shut up and not get myself hurt. My wife's best girlfriend who also has a young baby is black and she said the same thing to me about it. I just don't know how I feel about that. I've never needed to use the word to say anything anyway.