archive.newsmax.com
'Despicable' Democrats Under Fire for Racial Slur Against Indian-Americans
The president of the College Democrats of America is facing criticism from Indian-Americans for "despicable" comments he made about a Louisiana Republican gubernatorial candidate of Indian descent.
In an e-mail Tuesday, College Democrats President Ashley Bell, a law student at Louisiana State University, informed students of the upcoming governor's election between Democrat Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco and former Bush administration official Bobby Jindal, who was born a Hindu.
"On Saturday - we nominated Kathleen Blanco the Lt. Governor to be our nominee to take on Bush's personal 'Do Boy' Bobby Jindal," Bell wrote. "Jindal is Arab American [sic] and the Republicans [sic] token attempt to mend bridges long burnt with the Arab American community."
The fact that Bell called Jindal an Arab-American caused alarm, but Indian-Americans told CNSNews.com it was shameful for the College Democrats to label him as a token candidate because of his ethnicity.
"Playing the race card is just despicable," said Harin Contractor, an Indian-American student at the University of Georgia. "If that happened to the Jewish-American community or the African-American community ... there would be a huge backlash. But [Bell] doesn't care because we're Indian-American, and we don't matter."
To compound the situation, Bell responded shortly after sending the original e-mail with an apology that Contractor said was even more ignorant.
'Politically Correct'?
"In a recent email describing the Republican Nominee in Louisiana Bobby Jindal, I used what local news has termed Arab American - But in Fact Indian American is the politically correct terminology," Bell wrote. "So thank you to the curteous [sic] college dems - who let us know of the terminology mix up."
The Republican candidate won 33 percent of the vote in the governor's race. Because no candidate reached 50 percent, Jindal will meet Blanco, the second-place finisher with 18 percent, in a Nov. 15 runoff election. A recent poll indicates the race is a dead heat.
Jindal's campaign didn't return a call seeking comment, but Tulane University student Chris Meyer, state chairman of College Republicans, said the candidate wanted to stay focused on the issues facing Louisiana.
"It's just ignorance, and it's pretty sad that somebody would make claims like that based on Bobby's skin color," Meyer said of Bell's e-mail.
The College Republican National Committee called College Democrats a "laughingstock within the party of political correctness."
"This is just typical liberal spin trying to throw race into it to bring down the opposition or to bring themselves up," spokesman David Joyslin said. "As Republicans, we don't care about race. We just look at the person's stance on the issues and if they're going to be a good candidate."
"Ashley right now is at LSU, he's from Louisiana, and he's mixed up in this governor's race," Joyner said. "I think there was some emotion in his comments, and he didn't think them through. Ashley Bell is a good person. He is a wonderful leader, and he is very caring and thoughtful."
