Allen: Okay, I am from Jewish heritage, but I eat ham sandwiches!
Speaking with The Times-Dispatch, Allen said the disclosure is "just an interesting nuance to my background." He added, "I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops."kay, I know this is getting kind of boring, but there is just two other things about all of this. One is related to the whole macaca thing. Others (I did!) suggested that Allen knew 'macaca' was a racial slur when he said it because his mother, the one who has now "confirmed" the family's history, is from northern Africa where macaca is, in fact, a slur against blacks. Now, Allen is calling his opponent's campaign, and others, anti-semitic because, as he says,
"the question, the assertion, the offensive remarks that your mother taught you this slur, and that somehow it's because she has -- either she or her father was -- was Jewish."Um....what the hell are you talking about?! No one, NOBODY, is suggesting he called the only person of color in a room 'macaca' and welcomed him to America because Jews are racists, or that macaca is a slur used only by Jews, or Jewish mothers teach racism to their children! I really don't get what he is trying to say here, that if you point out the actually meaning of words you are anti-semitic? It makes no sense.
And secondly, considering Allen's use of the Confederate flag (and the noose) as a symbol of Southern heritage, and not, you know, slavery and institutional racism, it is really telling and weird that this whole Jewish heritage thing "never came up". The guy grew up in Southern California, acts like he's some protector of Southern history, brags about his grandfather's incarceration by the Nazis, yells at a reporter for asking about his Jewish roots, and NOW explains he just found about his family's history, and it really isn't important. What a sad, sad man.
Here's the Washington Post article
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