FRAMESHOP:FRAMESHOP: ALLEN AT IT AGAIN, WINKS AT WHITE FOLKS

Adding insult to injury in the 'macaca' affair, video cameras trained on George Allen's latest apologies have captured yet another disturbing scene: Senator Allen winking at a room full of white folks before apologizing for his racism.

The video in question was published in a Washington Post article by by Michael D. Shear and Tim Craig ("Allen Calls Webb Aide, Apologizes For Remark" 24AUG06).

Just after the 1 minute mark in the video, Senator Allen responds to a question from the audience by saying "I want to be very careful about the words I use," then winks and smiles at the all white, elderly crowd in Springfield, VA. In response to Allen's wink and smile, the crowd erupted into laughter. In the next scene of the video, Allen apologies for the 'macaca' incident saying, "From the deepest part of my heart, I am sorry and I will do better."

Wink, smile, and laugh. Then apologize.

After watching the Washington Post video, I am convinced that Senator Allen's heart is in that wink to the white folks, not in the apology.

Senator Allen's Sincerity Snafu
This new video this suggests that Allen's 'macaca' racism incident is morphing into a deepening sincerity problem for the Senator. It is one thing for George Allen to insult a person of color on the campaign trail, but to play wink-wink head games with campaign crowds of white people--under the auspices of apologizing for racism--this demonstrates that George Allen lacks any serious understanding of what he has done.

Even worse for Allen, a Senator who winks and smiles in the face of serious issues will remind many of another prominent Republican politician not held in such high esteem these days

President Bush is the all-time Republican winker.

But the problem with Allen is that this wink-and-smile comes at a time when voters are trying to figure out if he was or was not saying something offensive intentionally. And the verdict is not looking good.

As Dana Milbanks reports about Allen's most recent campaign stops, the press and the public do not seem convinced by Allen's apologies. Rather than putting out the 'macaca' flames, Allen's wink-and-smile apologies seem to only elicit more demands for apologies--more interest in hearing a racist Senator say that he was wrong.

Apology As Performance vs. Apology As Admission
In this endless flurry of demands for more and more apologies from Allen, we can see a tension between two different kinds of expression: apology as performance versus apology as admission.

A man who winks to the a room of white folks before apologizing for his racism is not likely to be admitting anything when he says, "I'm sorry." Rather, the apology is a show--political theater.

And in fact, listening to Allen's apology in Springfield, I was reminded of Clinton's first press conference apology performances in Monicagate.

Just like Clinton set up his apology by saying, "Now, I want to tell the American people something...I'm going to say this again," Allen also set up his Springfield apology with similar line.

In these moments, the set up phrases by the candidate function as road signs in political speech, directing the audience to what is about to happen, "Listen up! I'm going to perform my script, now!"

Past The Point Of Being Sincere
For apologies to be truly effective, of course, it helps for them to be somewhat spontaneous. For George Allen, an pretense at sponteneity has been poisoned by his obvious attempts to tie the apology to some kind of political recovery from the 'macaca' event.

And so before he apologized to the Springfield crowd, before he even winked and smiled, he endorsed the so-called 'marriage protection' ammendment that will be on the ballot in Virginia this November.

In the end, it seems that Allen's strategy is not only to hide his racism behind a wink and smile, but also behind his anti-equality homophobia. And why not? Why should Allen give a real sincere apology for hating dark-skinned people when he can still get re-elected by hating gay people.

In the insincere world of George Allen, such political calculus must seem downright moral.

© 2006 Jeffrey Feldman, Frameshop