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A new MSNBC/McClatchy poll shows Republican George Allen and Democrat Jim Webb in a dead heat for Allen’s Senate seat. Allen’s standing has crumbled in the wake of the “macaca” and other racial scandals.

I can’t remember another time in recent memory when a political “rising star” fell so quickly.

The stories just don’t stop coming. MSNBC has an exclusive report on a woman, Pat Waring, who overheard Allen loudly and repeatedly using the “n” word in the late 70’s as he prepared for a rugby match. This happened just before his first run for Virginia House of Delegates.

I agree with the woman in the article. He could have come clean about his past, admitted his repeated use of the word in the recklessness of his youth, apologized, and moved on. But no, he preferred to flatly deny it, which makes him a sitting duck for anyone who knows anything to the contrary. I bet we’ll get stories like this all the way to the election.

Allen is a disgrace to Virginia and to people of color. I can’t fathom how someone like him is still in office….though his presidential aspirations are probably toast, and that’s a good thing.

(The Allen campaign is fomenting allegations that his challenger Jim Webb also used the “n” word at one point. We’ll see what comes of that story, and if true is equally reprehensible, though I still consider Allen by far the worse evil for his consistent pattern of racism, from displaying nooses and confederate flags to the “macaca” incident to stuffing a decapitated deer’s head in a black family’s mailbox.)

Republican George Allen’s re-election campaign for Senate is crumbling, along with his ambitions for president. First there was “macaca.” Then came his defensive response to a question about his Jewish heritage, and his subsequent ludicrous claim that he wasn’t aware of it until now. Now witnesses are emerging to say that Allen repeatedly used racial epithets against African Americans in his younger years, and even shoved the head of a deer into the mailbox of the nearest black person during a hunt.

We’re seeing the real George Allen emerge now, especially in the way defensive, condescending way he is dealing about the questions regarding his past. This is a guy who has been photographed proudly with white supremacists, who has hung a noose in his office, who has spoken lovingly of the Confederate flag.

George Allen is and has always been a racist, and he can’t escape evidence of his true feelings anymore. Oh, he can try to hide by sponsoring useless and ultimately fruitless legislation to apologize for lack of harsher federal response to lynchings, and by providing lukewarm support for a formal apology for slavery. These are nothing but cheap ploys to deflect questions about his true racist past and feelings.

Hopefully Virginia will come to its senses and boot this bozo out office come November.

A Louisiana school district suspended a school bus driver after the driver, who is white, ordered nine black kids to sit in the back of the bus so that white students could sit in front. She also forced black kids to stand or sit on the laps of others so that white students could be seated.

Is this the year 2006 or 1966??!

Outrage followed in the wake of the blogosphere’s explosion of commentary on Republican Senator Allen repeatedly calling S. R. Sidarth, the only non-white member of a rally, a “macaca” and “welcoming him to America.” Allen issued an apology on Monday night, but the damage was done.

What did Allen mean by “macaca?” The Washington Post speculates:

Depending on how it is spelled, the word macaca could mean either a monkey that inhabits the Eastern Hemisphere or a town in South Africa. In some European cultures, macaca is also considered a racial slur against African immigrants, according to several Web sites that track ethnic slurs.

The fact that Allen’s mother is a Tunisian immigrant makes it highly likely he was aware of the term’s derogatory use as a racial slur.

The slur itself was bad enough, but Allen’s telling the audience to welcome the US-born Sidarth to America and “the real world” was incredibly condescending and makes you wonder what kind of “real world” America George Allen lives in.

What did Virginia Senator George Allen mean when he called a person of Indian descent a “macaca” during a recent rally? (View the video.) That’s what his opponent Jim Webb wants to know.

The individual, S. R. Sidarth, was videotaping the rally for the Webb campaign. Allen, who must have gotten annoyed with Sidarth’s presence, pointed out that “macaca over here”, and later “welcome[d him] to America and the real world of Virginia,” said “real world” consisting of an all-white Republican crowd except for Sidarth.

“Macaca” is the genus of macaque monkeys. Did George Allen really intend to call the only person of color at a rally a monkey?

The Associated Press is carrying an article on the increasing momentum of the slavery reparations movement. The movement seeks acknowledgement from institutions with historical ties to slavery in addition to providing financial compensation to the descendants of slaves.

After thinking about this issue I’m going to depart from my more liberal brethren and come out against paying a sum of money to specific individuals on some arbitrary basis.

Any effort that exposes just how much of our modern society was built on the backs of slaves is a good thing. There are many companies, organizations, churches and state/local governments that financially benefited in some way or another from slavery, and they would arguably be less powerful today had they not had that free labor.

Although wages not paid to slaves may carry a certain price tag, the biggest tragedy of slavery has been in the legacy left in its wake for generations after emancipation: unequal access to education, limited opportunities, racism, poverty, urban blight and flight, and segregation to name a few.

Would paying some amount of money to descendants of long-dead slaves really provide adequate reparation? Would it really redress the magnitude of wrongs suffered in the wake of slavery? Would African Americans as a group benefit from paying this amount of money, which is likely to be small on an individual basis anyway? I think not.

If we as a society, either collectively or in our individual organizations and churches, decide to provide reparations, then let’s do it in a way that will really make a difference for generations to come–not just to African Americans but to all of society. Of all the problems left by slavery’s legacy, unequal access to education is in my view the most outrageous one. Education is the Great Equalizer. It is that which can pull anyone out of poverty and provide a richer more meaningful life for himself and his descendants. Affirmative action notwithstanding, the plight of many urban African Americans is essentially a guaranteed life of limited educational and work opportunites. That greatest of wrongs, then, is the one that should be addressed.

Let us create a charitable education fund, one that can invest a portion of its resources and thus perpetualize its ability to give into the future. Any organization, church, or government entity who decided it should pay reparations could pay into the fund. As far as reparations from the US government is concerned, we should have a national conversation to determine whether that is warranted, and if it is then that too should go into the fund. The fund could be used in a variety of ways, from providing books to underprivileged schools to providing grants to students in need. Individuals and groups applying for aid from the fund would have to have a demonstrable tie to slavery, either through individual racial descent or because a majority population of a school, neighborhood, or organization is of African American origin.

Paying a sum of money to certain individuals does little or nothing to address the real roots of the slavery problem. Having society invest its resources in educating black kids and securing them a better future does address the problem, not just today but forever. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

If we’re going to pay reparations, let’s do it in a way that makes a difference rather than in a way that may just make us feel better.