(NSFW) Would you consider this a racist statement? (details inside)

Yes, I would say it was a slur on his bi-racial background.

I don’t know the commentator, so I don’t know his views on race but it’s in incredibly bad taste at the least.

No, Bush was likened to a chimp & Reagan, Nancy’s puppet & Carter, well…he just looked dumb.
I think it’s just a word intended to insult, nothing racist in it.

Yes. It is a racist statement.

And, I should have also asked Do you think it was a concious choice of words, a subconcious choice or an accidental one.

It’s not a “barely concealed racial overtone”, it is a blatant racist statement.

And I suppose he is now advocating for racial purity?

It was a conscious deliberate choice of words.

Myself, from listening to him in the past, believe he said what he meant to say and chose his word carefully.

Racists mean what they say, but sometimes they forget their audience because they think ‘it’s normal.’ And it was racist.

Not racist, just low. Very low.

@Espiritus_Corvus Seems we’re in the minority on this one, not knowing the fella I took it on face value.

@ucme If someone called me a mongrel, I would take it as an insult. Not you? Just curious.

In America, we may be a little more sensitive to that kind of thing based on all the insults about and social structure of mulatto’s (black/white mixes) and half-breeds (Native Am Indians and another race.)

@ucme I don’t really know th eguy either but I think the use of the word “mongrel” had a certain connotation.

@KNOWITALL Of course it’s an insult, that much is clear. Over here, calling someone a mongrel, not that I hear it much, is much like any other word designed for insult.
But I do see your point, maybe it’s more sinister than that given the variables involved.

I looked up the meaning and I would indeed view it as a racist remark.

And an insult.

Yup. Dog whistle for sure. Kind of clever, since it would be easy to claim they meant “monger.”

Obama called himself a mutt on one of his first speeches before he became president…

Yes, it’s a racist statement. I can’t see any way to interpret it otherwise.

Obama is a power hungry mongrel. I mean, look at all the verbal abuse Bush went through… Why is Obama pounding his highchair over the same stuff? Arrogant jerk that he is, got what he asked for.

@DWW25921 I don’t believe anyone would deny that Bush was called many things. The key word here is “mongrel” which calls into question his heritage in an extremely demeaning manner. Again, I ask would Bush have ever been called a mongrel?

I am not sure why this is so offensive, when people use the term “bitch” so freely.

@filmfann That’s kind of the point, no? Bitch is a mild insult against women – so mild that it’s sometimes even used as a term of respect. I can’t think of a mild racist slur, can you?

Yes

It may or may not have been racially motivated, but there’s always going to be a reactionary element, eager to play the race card.
I wonder what Obama himself thinks, guess we’ll never know.

@rojo Bush is also a mongrel. Aren’t we all though? I mean, I’ve got a little dutch, English, Scottish, French… I’m a cracker mongrel! What’s the difference?

@DWW25921

Really?
Of the Dutch race and the English race? Scottish race? Never realized nationalism equalled racism.

There was a time… I think when people are looking for a problem, no matter what someone says, they will find it!

@DWW25921 “Mongrel” is a loaded word, one that is used to describe a lack of racial purity. So it is a racist term that describes that the “bloodline” has been debased, that the person is “less than” because they are not pure. The Nazi’s used it as a description of ruining a culture and race. And your use of it can be connoted as racist too.

@zenvelo I would think someone who uses a word like that, dated as it is, would be ridiculed for saying it no matter how he meant it. I mean, who says “mongrel” anymore?

Racists?

Vets?

Republican teabags?

Christian hate radio hosts?

Dog rescue teams?

@Glacial Verbal WP allusions are subliminal hate speak. I think it’s getting hip to hate again, scary stuff.

I think it depends on the culture of the person saying it. I only mention it because I have heard many Australians use the term “mongrel” as an insult regardless of the other person’s skin colour. Anyone who has ever watched Home and Away and remembers the days of Alf Stewart (is he still in it? I haven’t seen it for years!) will know what I’m talking about.