So Hillary Clinton tries to make a joke about Gandhi by saying "He ran a gas station down in St. Louis," a joke that is on the same level of ethnic stereotyping as fried chicken and watermellon jokes about African Americans, and she expects us all to forgive her because she 'truly regrets' the joke. If a Trent Lott or another Republican had said it, people would be calling for that person to be strung up by their ears, but unless the story gets legs, Hillary's remarks are not getting nearly the criticism that they deserve.
She expects people to overlook her racially stereotyped joke because she has "admired the work and life of Mahatma Gandhi and have spoken publicly about that many times." If some Republican had made a fried chicken and watermellon joke in reference to Dr. King, we all know full well that no matter how many times that person had spoken admiringly of Dr. King, they would be strung up as a racist. Hillary Clinton made a racist joke about Mahatma Gandhi, and no amount of sugar coating can change that.
Posted by kathryn at Enero 7, 2004 02:00 PM | TrackBack