It's amazing what adjectives can be racist

Again from Taranto:

"The Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald accuses Sen. Saxby Chambliss of racism, or something approaching racism anyway:

"In a Tuesday interview on Fox News, Chambliss was talking about Republican expectations for the president's address when he said, "I think what you're looking at is folks on my side anxious to see what the president has to say (Wednesday) night. I think he's going to have to express some humility based on what we've seen around the country during August, and that's not his inclination."

Take a closer look at those two sentences. Sen. Chambliss states clearly that "to express some humility . . . is not (Obama's) inclination." It's not an unfair parsing of the senator's remarks to see them as coming uncomfortably close to suggesting the president is "uppity."

The word "uppity" is defined as "assuming airs beyond one's station," and--intended or not--that's a clear subtext of Chambliss' suggestion that the president is insufficiently humble.

Additionally, using the word "uppity" in connection with a black person is seen widely as something of a racial slur.

As a native Southerner, Chambliss should have understood the connotations of his suggestion that a black president should "express some humility" in delivering an address to the nation.

Chambliss' remarks were at least an artless articulation of his expectations for Obama's Wednesday address, and reasonably could be considered more troubling than his congressional colleague's far more vocal, but far less insidious, outburst.

The reference at the end is to Rep. Joe Wilson.

This is at least the third time we've witnessed the tactic of imputing racism by free association. In April 2008, a guy in the Los Angeles Times said it was racist to call Obama "elitist" because that means "arrogant," which means "uppity." He also suggested that if you call Obama "out of touch," it "plays harmoniously," whatever that means, with "the notion of blacks as 'others.' "

Then in August 2008, Slate's Tim Noah said that it's racist to say that Obama is "skinny," because Obama's slender build is a physical characteristic just like his skin color.

Now we have someone from a home-state newspaper (it's an unsigned editorial) chiding Chambliss for saying something that reminded the writer of the word "uppity."

We suppose we'll keep hearing this sort of thing even when Barack Obama is a lame duck--which is racist, by the way, because duck, like chicken, is a kind of poultry, and fried chicken is stereotypically associated with blacks. To our mind, it all portends racial progress. No one can possibly take this stuff seriously, which means that racism and racial stereotyping have lost much of their sting.

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