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campaign slogan for the future: Aborigines for Beason!
I don’t know Scott Beason personally, so I can make no credible judgement about his character. Many of his supporters have referred to him as “the most honorable man I know” and so forth. So, being neither friend nor foe of the Honorable Mr. Beason, I feel like I can offer an unbiased opinion of his now-infamous comment.
Certain words or terms carry their own connotations, and these connotations can be perceived as positive or negative. You can look up the definition of connotation, but basically, it means that regardless of the “definition”, the word or term has been, or is often used, to connote (suggest) a meaning other than it’s EXPLICIT meaning. For example, the words “slender” and “skinny” are both adjectives that mean basically the same thing: thin, slight, or small in size. But when used to physically describe a girl (or boy), then which word carries (or connotes) a more pleasing or acceptable (positive) description? Yes… slender. The word skinny suggests (or connotes) something that is generally unattractive or unwanted. So, for all of those who would defend Beason’s use of the word based on its explicit “Webster’s” definition to describe a person native to a particular area… well, they obviously aren’t familiar with the whole concept of connotations, or what words actually SUGGEST.
Why, instead of referring to “aborigines”, didn’t Beason just call them “people” or “voters” or “constituents” or “gamblers” or even “blacks” or “African Americans”? When asked this question on the stand, I believe even Beason himself could not offer ANY reason why he would use such a term. Well, may I propose that Beason is at least smart enough not to use the term “natives” because even HE knows that word carries a racial overtone. But obviously, he wasn’t smart enough to realize that substituting ABORIGINES for NATIVES was equally unacceptable… either politically, socially, or even casually. When used to label a block of predominantly black voters in Greene County, there is no real difference between the two terms. They are equally offensive. And stupid/ignorant/crazy/careless/clueless for an otherwise “HONORABLE” man and politician to use to describe this particular demographic.
Now, whether he should resign from office or leadership position in the Senate is for some other argument. But fellow Republicans and friends and supporters of the Honorable Mr.Beason, please back off your defense of Beason in using this term because of its strict dictionary definition. I very highly doubt that Mr. Beason would EVER refer to the voters of Vestavia, Mountain Brook, Shelby County, or practically any OTHER district in our great state NOT within the confines of the Black Belt as “ABORIGINES”.
As the now-popular cliche so aptly sums it up… It IS what it IS.
And what it IS… is a derogatory term with decidedly racial overtones that any honorable and AMBITIOUS politician should have been smart enough to avoid.
Or, it simply reveals his true colors.