Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin released a statement on her Facebook page accusing President Obama of engaging in "shuck and jive shtick" regarding last month's attack in Benghazi, Libya.
"Why the lies? Why the cover up?
Why the dissembling about the cause of the murder of our ambassador on
the anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil? We
deserve answers to this. President Obama's shuck and jive shtick with
these Benghazi lies must end," Palin wrote.
For those who aren't familiar with the phrase, "shuck and jive" is a racially-tinged expression. According to the user-submitted Urban Dictionary,
the term "originally referred to the intentionally misleading words and
actions that African-Americans would employ in order to deceive racist
Euro-Americans in power, both during the period of slavery and
afterwards."
As Politico points out,
this isn't the first time the phrase has come up and inspired
controversy. Several years ago, Andrew Cuomo, then New York's Attorney
General, used the expression while campaigning for Hillary Rodham
Clinton. "You can't shuck and jive at a press conference. All those
moves you can make with the press don't work when you're in someone's
living room."
Cuomo was promptly blasted
by CNN's Roland Martin, who wrote, "'Shucking and jiving' have long
been words used as a negative assessment of African Americans, along the
lines of a 'foot shufflin' Negro.' In fact, I don't recall ever hearing
the phrase used in reference to anyone white."
Earlier this week, conservative
pundit Ann Coulter inspired outrage when she called President Obama a
"retard" following his Florida debate with GOP challenger Mitt Romney.
An athlete with Down Syndrome wrote an open letter
to Coulter in response. "Come on Ms. Coulter," he wrote. "You aren't
dumb and you aren't shallow. So why are you continually using a word
like the R-word as an insult?"
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