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At an anger fest posing as a political rally for Republican nominee John McCain, a resentful women took the microphone and told John McCain that she worried about Obama and that she did not "trust Obama" because he is an "Arab".
McCain then took the microphone from her and correcting her said that Obama is, in fact, not an Arab. And that Obama is a "decent family man citizen" who McCain just has fundamental disagreements with. All well and good, even some liberals praised McCain's supposedly gracious response by defending Obama from the awful smear of being an uncouth Arab.
There is so much wrong with this exchange and the response to it that says a lot about the post-9/11 magnified racism against Arabs in America. McCain seemed not to notice the women's abhorrent racism when she stated that she opposed Obama not, apparently, first due to any political proposals but that she did not trust him because he is an Arab therefore implying that there is something wrong with being an Arab.
One could imagine the uproar that would ensue if she had stated that she opposed Obama because he is black. Instead of stating that Obama is not an Arab AND that there is nothing wrong with that, McCain simply stated that Obama is not an Arab as if defending Obama from some nefarious accusation.
He went on to say that Obama is "decent" almost in juxtapose to being Arab. I have been Arab my entire life and I like to think I am also decent. Obama was also a "family man," as if Arabs aren't. Me? Family man? Too young for that one just yet. And a "citizen". Ditto on that one for me.
McCain let one of his supports get a way with smearing a whole group of people who are citizens and service members in the country he hopes to lead. Instead of defending Arabs and letting the hooligans that made up that audience know that there is nothing wrong with being Arab, he simply responded in a manner that suggested that being Arab is a smear and that Obama is not an Arab because he is after all a good man, a trait that eludes Arabs as that women would have it. A true gracious response would have confronted such racism. So much for a decent and respectful campaign from the self-declared maverick.
