Lynn Westmoreland represents the 3rd Congressional District of Georgia. He grew up there and was alive while it was a segregated land. Code words were well known by everyone regardless of color and everyone knew which ones meant what. So yesterday when he made a statement describing Barack Obama as "uppity" a reporter took notice and asked him to clarify, but he stuck with the code word. Now today, he is claiming ignorance and will not apologize for his racist remarks.
From The NY Examiner:
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Democrats are calling on a Republican congressman from Georgia to apologize for referring to Barack and Michelle Obama as "uppity," but the lawmaker stood by his comments and said he meant no offense.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Grantville, Ga., described the Obamas as members of an "elitist-class ... that thinks that they're uppity," according to The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper.
Asked to clarify whether he intended to use the word, he said, "Yeah, uppity."
Westmoreland fully knows what the word means, even before he was told of its significance. He claimed that he was using the dictionary definition of the word, but if he thinks Americans are that stupid, then he has another thing coming to him. It would take a gullibility level of a thousand to not get what he was saying, but in the South, that word comes through crystal clear. Now you'll never hear McCain utter that word or anything like that. If anything it would be much more subtle, but you can count on surrogates like Westmoreland to reinforce the message of intolerance throughout the South and wherever racism rears its ugly head.
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