NBC 4’s reporter-anchor Craig Melvin is a tall African-American. Which apparently led to this exchange with former Sen. George Allen, according to Melvin’s Twitter account Tuesday night:
“For the 2nd time in 5 months, fmr. gov. and sen candidate George Allen asks me,”what position did you play?” I did not a play a sport.”
And we’re off!
Sure, Allen issued a lame non-apology apology (“If I offended…Grew up in fball family found sports banter good way to connect”) for his ignorance (yeah, right, EVERY black man plays sports; right Felix!), but the bottom line is that he just doesn’t “get it” when it comes to racial issues. At best, he’s a clueless doofus who can only speak in sports metaphors and calling people “patriots” or whatever. At worst, he’s a racist. Either way, he shouldn’t be back in the “wounded sea slug” Senate he hated so much.
Update by Miles: From ThinkProgress’ Lee Fang:
[L]ast year, I attended an event featuring Allen at the Heritage Foundation. After speaking once with the senator during the question and answer period, I again raised my hand for a second question. For some reason, possibly because I was the only minority in an all-white audience, Allen dismissed my second question by asking if I understood what an “at-bat” meant. … In Allen’s worldview, every tall African American is a sports player, but Asian Americans have never heard of baseball.
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