The American Mind

Democratic Congressional candidate Steve Kagen is stumbling through the final weeks of his race against Republican John Gard. He’s said he’d fight terrorists on planes instead of preventing them from ever hijacking them; would rather be nicey-nice with North Korea; and thinks criminals are making a statement when committing their crimes. Kagen has now uttered a racial slur. Radio yapper Charlie Sykes gives us the details:

Millionaire doctor Steve Kagen imploded last week with a series of blunders – on fighting terrorism, North Korea, and fighting crime – and this week is facing controversy over his use of an ethnic slur. But will the MSM go after him for any it?

Take Kagen’s use of the word, “Injun,” as in: “Our excuse, uh, in Oneida was, well we are on injun time. They don’t tell time by the clock. Our excuse here is I’m a doctor and we’re never on time.”

Sykes also has audio. [I bet a Gard supporter recorded this.]

I wonder if the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board will consider this another example of Kagen’s “tendency to shoot from the hip.”

Sykes compares this to Sen. George Allen’s goofy use of the word “macaca” only he (and I) doubts Kagan will get even a fraction of heat Allen got.

Kagen still lives in a Lone Ranger world where his “Injun” friends all consider him their “kemosabe” and use smoke signals to communicate.

Imagine if John Gard had introduced himself to tribal leaders by raising his right hand and saying, “How.” He would be in damage control city. Reporters will dig through news archives to see if Gard’s insensitivity was part of a pattern of behavior. Classmates would appear claiming Gard always had it out for the Indians. We’d see stories trying to link Gard’s stances on Indian issues like gambling and spearfishing to racism. Gard’s campaign would be paralyzed.

However, the same probably won’t happen to Kagen. He’s appologized and has Indian leaders defending him:

Several tribal leaders came to Kagen’s defense, saying other issues were more important and the expression “Indian time” was not offensive. Use of the term “injun,” however, was called derogatory by one tribal leader.

Menominee Tribal Chairwoman Karen Washinawatok said the term “Indian time” is commonly used among Native Americans, whose concept of time traditionally was much different from European settlers.

“It’s not at all derogatory… it’s the time we were meant to be there,” she said. Washinawatok, however, said the word “injun” was derogatory.

Oneida Tribal Chairman Gerald Danforth said “Indian time” was “one of those cliches for why you might be late for an event.” Danforth said he thought it was humorous that Kagen had used the term.

“I had to laugh. I didn’t give it much more thought than that,” Danforth said.

Oneida Nation spokeswoman Bobbi Webster told the Green Bay Press-Gazette:

“I think this has escalated far beyond what actually happened. I did ask him about this, and he reiterated that he thought he was trying to be comical in tone.”

I’ll remember these words the next time I hear complaints about Indian sports mascots being “insensitive” and “stereotypical.” Professor John McAdams nails it:

By any reasonable standard you honor a group when you name your team after them. By any reasonable standard, you demean a group when you say that they can’t tell time.

But politically correctness has nothing to do with reasonable standards. Being “offended” has nothing to do with objective offensiveness.

Rather, it’s a tool to be used by activists to bully people.

But they only want to bully certain kinds of people.

They are – and they know that they are – clients of white liberal elites. They are the pets of the liberal elites, and if they play the game the way the white liberals want, they get rewarded for doing so (with lucrative gambling monopolies, for example).

So they don’t use the race card against their patrons.

And note John Gard’s work as State Assembly Speaker doesn’t make him a friend to Indian casino interests:

Danforth and Washinawatok said there were many more important issues to the tribes than the Kagen remark.
Washinawatok said Kagen had visited the Menominee reservation many times and that she supports his candidacy. Danforth said the Oneida tribe had taken no official position on the congressional race.

Gard’s push to give the state Legislature a say in approving Indian gambling compacts was objectionable to Washinawatok. Gard lead role in criticizing tribal gambling deals negotiated by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle in 2003 also put him at odds with many Wisconsin tribal officials.

This will be a one-day story with no look into Kagen’s background.

“Slurs and Double Standards”

UPDATE: Here’s the published Journal Sentinel story.

“Kagen Apologizes for Remark”