Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed?earlier today that he wanted to be the first Iranian in space. And, okay, that might be open to a few jokes considering his country's mostly debunked claim about sending a monkey into orbit?last week, which Iranian space officials are still defending.?But actually referring to Ahmadinejad ? or any person ? as a "monkey" is a terrible idea, which Senator John McCain found out today as he went on the defensive himself.
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Upon hearing the news of Ahmadinejad's post-presidency aspirations, McCain or someone on his social-media team sent out this message on his official Twitter feed:
So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space - wasn't he just there last week? "Iran launches monkey into space" news.yahoo.com/iran-launches-?
? John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) February 4, 2013
Ooof. We don't really need to explain the racial implications of an old white guy comparing a person of a different ethnicity to a monkey, but apparently McCain ? or, again, one of his staffers ? did not quite understand the gravity of his comparison. The trail of that tweet quickly became long and winding, from those who claim to have gotten the "joke"...?
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...to some calling it rapid-fire racism:?
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McCain's tweet was retweeted over 1,000 times before McCain sent out another tweet an hour later,?acknowledging?the uproar without offering an apology:?
Re: Iran space tweet - lighten up folks, can't everyone take a joke?
? John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) February 4, 2013
That tweet eventually made its way to Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), a Congressman?of Palestinian descent:
Maybe you should wisen up & not make racist jokes. ?@senjohnmccain: Re: Iran space tweet - lighten up folks, can't everyone take a joke??
? Justin Amash (@repjustinamash) February 4, 2013
We're used to Democrats chastising Republicans and vice-versa, especially over misinterpreted comments, but that sort of friendly fire ? with the word "racist" used explicitly ? is something of an anomaly. Of course, this all could have been avoided if, say, Iran sent a seahorse into space. Or if John McCain just refrained from trying to be "funny."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/john-mccain-called-racist-referring-ahmadinejad-space-monkey-174453108.html
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