S. R. Sidarth

Shekar Ramanuja Sidarth (born 1985) is an Indian American and resident of the U.S. state of Virginia, where he was born and raised. His volunteer work for the Senate campaign of Democrat Jim Webb placed him at the center of a controversy over the use of an apparent racial slur against him by Webb's opponent, Republican Senator George Allen, in August 2006.

Biography

Sidarth was a straight-A student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. He was a Capitol Hill intern for Senator Joseph Lieberman, and has been an active member of the Hindu temple his parents helped establish in Maryland.

In fall 2006, while a senior at the University of Virginia,cite news | last=Sidarth| first=S.R. | title=I Am Macaca
date=November 12, 2006 | publisher=Washington Post| url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111001381.html] he won a coveted spot in University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato's small seminar on campaigns and elections with a three-word essay: "I am Macaca." [cite news | last=Kunkle | first=Fredrick | title=Fairfax Native Says Allen's Words Stung.
date=August 25, 2006 | publisher=Washington Post| url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/24/AR2006082401639_pf.html]

Macaca incident

[
right|thumb|Allen_points_to_Webb_aide,_Sidarth,_referring_to_him_as_cite web |url = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G7gq7GQ71c |title = Allen's Listening Tour
work = YouTube | date = accessdate = 2006-08-15 ]

On Friday, August 11, 2006, George Allen referred to Sidarth using a word that sounded like "macaca". Allen followed up with "So welcome, let's give a welcome to Macaca here! Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia!" Sidarth is of Indian ancestry but was born and raised in Fairfax County, Virginia. The term was interpreted by some to have been a racial slur against him, as "macaca" is a term for dark-skinned people, commonly used by the French colonists in North Africa. Senator Allen's mother was raised in the French colonial community in Morocco.

At the time, Sidarth was filming an Allen campaign stop in Breaks, Virginia, near the Kentucky border. He had filmed numerous Allen campaign events in the previous weeks. His father Shekar Narasimhan, a member of the DNC Indo-American council, led the campaign to get Jim Webb elected.

* S. R. Sidarth was named person of the year for 2006 by online magazine Salon.com recognizing the way he "changed history with a camcorder." [cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/12/16/sidarth/index.html|title=Salon Person of the Year: S.R. Sidarth|publisher=Salon.com|date=2006-12-16|accessdate=2007-03-12]
*He was profiled for "Time"'s 2006 Person of the Year, "You," the controversial mirror-like cover which reflected the reader's own visage.
* Sidarth was admitted to a class with Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia which requires an essay of potential students. There is one slot available for each essayist. Sidarth's entire essay read "I am Macaca." [cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/12/16/sidarth/index.html|title=Salon Person of the Year: S.R. Sidarth|publisher=Salon.com|date=2006-12-16|accessdate=2008-05-19]
* Sidarth worked in the 2008 presidential primary campaign for Democrat Bill Richardson as part of Richardson's communications team based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. [http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/the-early-word-dont-take-giulianis-word/ The Early Word] November 30, 2007, political blog by Ariel Alexovich at the "New York Times".]

References

External links

* [http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/opinion/12rich.html "2006: The Year of the ‘Macaca’"] November 12, 2006 by Frank Rich in the "New York Times"; contains detailed bio info on S.R. Sidarth.