As a follow-up to this post from the weekend, there does seem to be a legitimate dispute as to whether John McCain's interlocutor said she didn't trust Obama because he was an "Arab" or because he was an "Arab terrorist." Meanwhile, we've moved into plush monkey dolls:
Nice bunch of folks John McCain has at his rallies. I'd actually go a step further than Ta-Nehisi does here: What's sick about the above clip is not the bystanders who silently enable the racist. Rather, it's the folks who smile and laugh along with him. The McCain-supporting racist isn't engaged in anti-social or marginal behavior. He's at a rally, in line, holding his plush monkey in the air so folks smile and laugh at his cleverness. He's brandishing racism to gain social acceptance, and from the look of the clip, it's working fine. Now, the others in line may not themselves be racist. But they hate Obama, and they're willing to indulge a bit of racism if it serves that emotion. I can't decide if that's worse or not.
