"Uppity"
When a co-worker told me a Georgia Republican had called Barack Obama "uppity" and then claimed he had "never heard the term used in a racially derogatory sense", I was incredulous. How the hell could someone from Georgia who's old enough to be a congressman not know what it means to call a black man (or, in this case, a black couple) "uppity"?
But she didn't tell me it was Lynn Westmoreland. That man is dumb as a brick. He's the guy who couldn't name more than three commandments when Colbert asked him to recite the Ten Commandments. He may well be so stupid he didn't know what "uppity" meant.
I doubt it, but with him it is possible.
5 Comments:
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At 12:56 AM, September 06, 2008
Anonymous had this to say...
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At 11:56 AM, September 06, 2008
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 11:57 AM, September 06, 2008
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 1:31 PM, September 06, 2008
fev had this to say...
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At 8:18 PM, September 07, 2008
fev had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Coming from the perspective of not being from Georgia or even from America, I don't think I've heard the word "uppity" since, oh, probably the Mr. Men books. Not exactly a good analogy for Obama. (I've not heard of the racially derogatory connotations it has in your country, so I guess that's yet another "divided by a common language" thing.)
Let me say that I sincerely doubt Westmoreland has ever heard the word used in a non-racial sense. It may be that Westmoreland didn't know the meaning of "uppity", but it's just impossible that people around him in Georgia insouciantly toss it off to mean "egotistical".
Oh, and when I say "it may be" here I mean "not a chance in hell, really"...
I love the fall-back-on-the-dictionary defense. I bet Lynn and his buds sat around memorizing the dictionary for _just this sort of occasion_ while they were waiting for their hoods to dry.
Having grown up in the south as well, I think "not a chance in hell" is putting it quite politely.
John McIntyre, who runs the BaltSun copydesks and tends a good editing blog there too, sums it up in his unfailingly polite way:
"So to the other historic elements of this year’s presidential election — the first African-American nominee from a major party, the first female vice presidential nominee from the Republican Party, etc. — we can add this specimen: a grown white man from the Deep South who had never heard uppity used with any racial connotation."
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