This video captures a meaningful moment for Annabel and for me… witnessing the candidate we’d volunteered for in 2006 introduce the candidate we’ve volunteered for (in five states) in 2008. This video chronicles the moments leading up to Barack Obama’s first speech as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States at the Nissan Pavilion in Manassas, VA.
The spirit of inclusion, fairness, opportunity, and respect that inspired Real Virginians For Webb nearly two years ago is even more crucial in Virginia, and in America, today. We will soon unfurl the Real Virginians banner once again, this time, perhaps we will call ourselves Real Virginians for Obama. And perhaps in a few months time, the proper name will be Real Virginians for Obama/Webb, as Jim Webb is often mentioned as a possible Vice Presidential nominee.
For those who don’t know the story, the name “Real Virginians For Webb” was coined by Annabel Park during the 2006 Senate campaign, after the incumbent Sentator George Allen (R) had pointed to an Asian American man during a stump speech and said, “Let’s have a round of applause to welcome macaca to America… Welcome to America and the Real World of Virginia.” As Annabel explains in this video, our aim was to remind Senator Allen that Real Virginians are not defined by what you look like, we are defined by values that we share.
I had high hopes for Obama even as far back as 2006 when I returned to Virginia to volunteer for Jim Webb. In this video featuring Daniel Dae Kim of TV’s “Lost,” I cross fade to a famous photo of Jim Webb, his wife Hong-Le Webb, and Barack Obama taken during Webb’s Senate campaign.
This conversation from my AliveNotDead profile illuminates the Real Virginians For Webb story a bit more:
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what’s macaca?Eric Byler
Macaca is like the N-word. It means “monkey.” They say this in Tunisia instead of the N-word. George Allen, the man who said it, used to hang a noose over his office to commemorate the lynching of African Americans during the Jim Crow era, and he used to wear a Confederate pin (not that uncommon around here). Most damning is that, although he claims he made up the word macaca and had no idea what it meant, Allen’s mother is FROM Tunisia where macaca is used instead of the N-word.
