Word Senator George Allen (R-VA) used for Indian-American is an established racial slur

UPDATE: Scathing Washington Post editorial about George Allen's racism today.

It seems George Allen didn't just pull the word "macaca" out of nowhere. It's a French slur, derived from the word macaque, as in monkey, used against the dark-skinned people of North Africa. And guess what? George Allen's mother was a French national (one presumes she was not a black woman) who lived in North Africa before coming to the US (she was in the US at least by the late 50s). And judging by the rather terrible French relations with North Africa during the era, it's likely that a white French woman living in the area might know a few nasty words for dark people, and use them around her children.

Atrios has more. Additional hat tip (hate tip?) to DKos.