Racist Politicians Target People of Indian Descent in Ohio and Arkansas

Have you ever seen that 'whack-a-mole' game in arcades?   Your kid puts 50 cents in the machine and he gets a hammer.  There are a bunch of moles who pop out of holes ... and your kid scores points for whacking the mole on his head and driving him back into the hole. The racist mole-like efforts of our politicians showed itself this week.

First, I voted yesterday in the Democratic primary for Ohio's 2nd District. The seat is currently held by Jean Schmidt (R-OH). One of the Democratic hopefuls challenging for the job is David Krikorian. Krikorian showed his racism with disparaging remarks he’s made recently about his chief primary opponent, Surya Yalamanchili.

Krikorian has appeared at campaign events to ridicule Yalamanchili, an American of Indian descent, by dramatically pronouncing his name to emphasize its foreign nature.

“Now do you really think that a guy with a name like that has a chance of ever being elected?” Krikorian allegedly said to members of Veterans of Foreign Wars in Clermont County.

The comments — which Krikorian denies - drew a quick response from Jean Schmidt and local Democratic leaders, who shot off a letter to Krikorian calling his behavior “deeply disturbing.”

“Your comments on Surya’s name are are best insensitive and worse appear racist,” wrote Timothy M. Burke and David Lane, the Democratic chairmen in Hamilton and Clermont counties, respectively. “It is deeply disturbing to us that you would use his name, which is obviously derived from his ethnic heritage, against him in a denigrating manner, especially considering how strongly you value and celebrate your own heritage.”

Krikorian thought he was being subtle.  He thought that he could ridicule his opponent's name as a racist code for reminding voters that Yalamanchili is too dark-skinned to represent them in Congress.

You have to watch these closet-racists closely.  As soon as you whack one of them back in their hole ... another one pops up.   A second racist mole popped up in the Arkansas race for US Senate. In this case, we see a group called the Americans for Job Security running an ad against Bill Halter, who's challenging Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) in this month's Democratic primary.

Some shyt is so obvious that it can't be denied ... even when the racist moles try to do so. Is there any non-racist motive for a pro-business group to portray colorful Indian characters thanking Halter -- who served on a corporate board that voted to send some jobs to India?

You be the judge:


The racism in this ad was called to task by others on Daily Kos, Sepia Mutiny, Angry Asian Man, and Reappropriate.

The Electronic Village is proud to join their ranks! We'll whack-a-(racist) mole any day of the week and twice on Tuesdays!