McCain should be held responsible for racial remarks

By: Pratistha Koirala

Posted: 9/3/08

Eight years ago, John McCain made a statement that should have raised a massive outcry. Instead, it went by almost unnoticed - a tiny blip in the political landscape.

"I hate the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live."

In 2000, McCain uttered these words while campaigning for the Republican presidential bid. He later refused to apologize for these spiteful comments. In fact, the word "gook" has been part of McCain's vocabulary for decades.

The etymology of the word "gook" is largely unknown, but it is thought to have roots in the Filipino uprising of 1899. It later came back in strong force during the Korean War and finally the Vietnam War. Though the history of the word is entrenched in war, its impact has a much wider range, extending into an era of racialism toward Asian Americans.

This racialism is no minor part of American history, no matter how well it has been hidden. The word "gook" is a reflection of the Chinese Exclusion Act, preventing this group from immigrating to the United States, of the Japanese internment camps during World War II, and the hate directed toward Asians during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Due to its bloody history of hate, dehumanization and discrimination, the term "gook" is the Asian American equivalent to the n-word racial slur for blacks. Would it be acceptable for someone to use the n-word for any person, regardless of what atrocious crime they might have had committed against them? Why then, was it such a nonevent when McCain used a racial slur to describe a group of people?

McCain later justified his use of this racial slur because of his experience as a prisoner for five and a half years during the Vietnam War. According to him, his statement applied to only to his captors. Though his anger is understandable, his choice of words is not. They were inflammatory and uncalled for. As a politician and a presidential candidate, McCain should have had more class than to use a derogatory racial slur.

McCain's use of the term and his refusal to stop is a reflection of his willingness to categorize people as "us" and "them." Eight years later, these comments still matter because they show him as a person who is willing to hate and stereotype an entire group of people. As the potential next president of the United States, McCain has a great deal of responsibility toward his fellow American citizens, residents and of course, the international community. With an estimated 14.9 million Asian American residents, McCain's comment could be interpreted as a racial attack to a large number of people within the United States' boundaries.

Furthermore, regardless of the context in which it was said, and whether or not it was justified, his words are offensive to 4 billion people, about 60 percent of the world's population. With the rise of Asia on the political scene, especially China's establishment as a world power, it is important to form and maintain good relationships. Our foreign policy for the past eight years has created widespread animosity toward America, and electing a person with a history of racist remarks will not help the world's perspective.

Because of his apparent intolerance for Asians, McCain cannot be seen as a healing force in foreign relations. As a world power, it is our responsibility to promote cultural literacy. Making racist remarks and allowing derogatory slurs to enter mainstream media and politics is a step against the basic principles of America as a place of open-mindedness.

As a country with ever increasing diversity, can we afford to have a leader who is willing to categorize people of color? We need a leader who can put aside his personal agendas of hatred. When McCain made his comments about "hating the gooks," he let his anger define a group of people based upon race and ethnicity. This is absolutely unacceptable, and McCain should be held responsible for these comments.