Va. Senator Who Used Slur Declines Award
By BOB LEWIS
The Associated Press
Friday, September 1, 2006; 8:50 AM
RICHMOND, Va. -- A senator who had singled out an Indian man at a campaign event and referred to him as "Macaca" declined a leadership award from a minority scholarship fund Thursday after donors protested his selection.
Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund donors had threatened to withhold contributions if Sen. George Allen, a Republican seeking re-election this fall, received the fund's Community Leadership Award.
"The foundation told the senator that they've been catching a lot of static from members and some of their donors, and before it spins into a week of controversy, we just decided to decline it," Allen spokesman John Reid said.
Allen's decision came almost three weeks after he singled out a Virginia-born college student of Indian descent in a mostly white crowd at a campaign rally and twice applied the name "Macaca" to him.
Macaca is a genus of monkeys that includes macaques, and is also considered a racial slur in some parts of the world.
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