Saturday, September 19, 2009

Blunt under fire for monkey joke

I have a hard time believing that Roy Blunt is a racist, but his choice of a joke during a speech Friday at the Values Voter Summit, did not exactly display Blunt at his best:

He told a tale about British soldiers who had built a golf course in India and had to adapt to the game in a whole new way. They didn’t anticipate that they’d be joined on the course by monkeys, who would swoop out of the nearby jungle, grab the golf balls and toss them around, he explained.

The golfers had to establish a firm rule. “You have to play the ball where the monkey throws it. And that is the rule in Washington all the time.”


Check out the comments at the end of the New York Times article.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

My gosh, it is bad when everything said by someone opposing the almighty government is now taken as racism. Does it surprise anyone that they are grabbing at straws to distract the public from the real truths? The facts are, the choices and direction that the current administration, including the Senate and Congress (most members and of all races) are taking this country is irresponsible. Let them back up their proposals with facts, not just retoric.

Randy said...

I would say this does not show that Roy Blunt is racist, but that his political antennae are not working properly.He should have realized before he told the joke the kind of uproar it was going to cause.

Busplunge said...

The people in his audience got it.

While it may not have been racist as such (it's not the color of his skin that is the problem....) it showed a remarkable lack of insensitivity.
\

Given the context in which he told it, it was as if he compared the president to a monkey.

A born in Kenya monkey.

Purgason is looking better everyday.

Anonymous said...

Blunt ... a bigoted racist?!?

Hell, all he forgot was his pointy-headed white sheet outfit.

Anonymous said...

Besides Randy, who has put the Congressman "under fire?"

Anonymous said...

I think it is inmaterial what Blunt says or does these days. I think he will be out of office this next time around. He's become a Washington insider and the people who have voted for him in the past are pretty much done with him. He's not doing anything anyway, so he should just concentrate on being a lobbyist cause that's what he will do when he gets beat in the election!

Anonymous said...

I'm sure that joke appealed to the racists that support Blunt. On the other hand, its easy to say something that could be considered racists, but really is not. For example I was goofing around with my 4yo daughter and asked her if she wanted to see a monkey and showed her a mirror. She is a little monkey, she jumps and crawls around all over the place as well as enjoys bananas. There were some black people within ear shot, and although I doubt they were offended , I felt weird as soon as I said it. It can be difficult trying to not offend anyone.

Randy said...

I understand what you are saying and you are right. In this instance, however, the joke came during a speech in which Blunt talked about the racist accusations that are being made. It was bad judgment to tell the joke, at the least.