Republican calls blacks "aborigines"

Senator in Ala. probe called blacks 'aborigines'

By Phillip RawlsA state senator who recorded conversations for the FBI in Alabama's gambling corruption probe called black customers of a gambling hall "aborigines" during one taped conversation.

A defense attorney for indicted casino owner Milton McGregor presented a transcript in court Wednesday from a recorded conversation that Republican Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale had with two other GOP legislators. The three were joking about economic development in predominantly black Greene County and the customers at one of the county's largest employers, the Greenetrack casino in Eutaw.

"That's y'all's Indians," one Republican said.

"They're aborigines, but they're not Indians," Beason replied.Comment:  Here's a classic example of how all bigotries are similar. According to Beason, blacks are "aborigines." Primitive people from Africa or some dark spot. A place where civilization and Christianity have never quite reached.

Would you call a black person a "honky" or a white person a "jigaboo"? Probably not. But to Beason, two distinct ethnic groups are interchangeable. Blacks are aborigines and Indians, to some people, are "prairie niggers."

Note that Beason didn't seem to have an overt agenda. It's just part of his unconscious, everyday thinking. Blacks = aborigines = Indians. They're all savage "others."

For more on the subject, see Obama "Witch Doctor" Is Papua New Guinean and Obama Smeared as Luo Tribesman.

Below:  "Beason testified Tuesday, June 14, 2011 that he wore a recording device for the FBI when he met Country Crossing lobbyist Jarrod Massey in Feb. 2010, in Homewood." (Phil Rawls/AP)