ああWest Virginia

First Ladyのミシェル・オバマを中傷した件がありましたが、ちょっと前にブログで取り上げたWest Virginia州で起こったのでした。まあたまたまなんですけど。。。



West Virginia official who called Michelle Obama an 'ape in heels' fired following outcry
Nick Allen, washington
15 NOVEMBER 2016 • 7:02PM

Officials in an all-white part of West Virginia sparked outrage across America after referring to Michelle Obama as an "ape in heels".

The mayor of the town of Clay resigned and the director of a local government-funded agency was also removed from her job following the racist comment.

記事タイトルではreferring to Michelle Obama as an "ape in heels"とan apeとなっていますが実際のコメントだとa Apeとなっています。ネイティブも間違えるから冠詞を勉強しなくてはいいなんて暴論は吐きませんが難しい部分もありますよね。

Taylor wrote: "It will be so refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House. I'm tired of seeing a Ape in heels (sic)." 

この記事の最後にこの町の人口統計が載っていましたが、黒人が全くいない、ほとんどいない地域であることがわかります。

The town of Clay has a population of 491, none of whom are black, according to latest US Census figures.
Clay County has 9,000 people and 0.2 per cent of them are black.
In the recent US presidential election 77 per cent of voters in Clay County backed Mr Trump.

スルーしていましたが先月のNew YorkerのカバーストーリーもWest Virginiaを取り上げていたんです。

A REPORTER AT LARGE OCTOBER 10, 2016 ISSUE
IN THE HEART OF TRUMP COUNTRY
West Virginia used to vote solidly Democratic. Now it belongs to Trump. What happened?
By Larissa MacFarquhar

選挙当日に同じライターがこの州を訪問していたようで当選直後の様子を記事にしていました。そこでオバマが当選するまで人種を意識したことがなかったという話が出てきます。まあ黒人がほとんど住んでいない地域ですので仕方がないことですが、ただトランプが出てきて思ったことを語るようになったとあります。

LEARNING TRUMP WON, IN WEST VIRGINIA
By Larissa MacFarquhar , NOVEMBER 10, 2016

Before Obama was elected, it had been Jones’s experience that most people in West Virginia didn’t talk much about race; they didn’t live near any black people, so the subject didn’t come up. When Obama was elected, people started to talk about it more, but they felt inhibited because most didn’t want to seem racist. Then, when Trump started his campaign, he gave a legitimacy and a voice to thoughts that people had had but which they’d been afraid to talk about in public. “Now the lid is off,” he said. “People feel free to say what they really think.”

印象に残ったのはこの記事冒頭に出てくる“I think our country has finally started to wake up to the fact that everything’s soft,”という言葉。

The first thing he felt was relief that Clinton would not be extending Obama’s coal regulations. Four more years of those would have been the end of Logan, he thought. But the election had not been just about Obama, or Clinton, or even Trump, he felt: it was something deeper that people had been responding to. “I think our country has finally started to wake up to the fact that everything’s soft,” he said on Wednesday. “You don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, and everybody seems to be getting a handout without having to work. I don’t want to come off as callous, but I’m telling you it feels that way. Nothing’s good anymore. And I think for the first time people stood up and said, ‘We’re tired of the direction we’ve been going down for the last eight years.’ “

日本のメディアも取り上げたので覚えている人も多いでしょうが、この言葉は今年の夏のクリント・イーストウッドの発言とかぶります。彼は弱腰になっている世代をpussy generationと呼んでいました。

Clint and Scott Eastwood: No Holds Barred in Their First Interview Together
Think your old man is a ball-buster? Try being the son of Clint Eastwood. And then try making a name for yourself in the family business. This month, as Clint and Scott Eastwood go head-to-head at the box office, father and son sit down together for an interview for the first time.
BY MICHAEL HAINEY AUG 3, 2016

ESQ: Your characters have become touchstones in the culture, whether it's Reagan invoking "Make my day" or now Trump … I swear he's even practiced your scowl.
CE: Maybe. But he's onto something, because secretly everybody's getting tired of political correctness, kissing up. That's the kiss-ass generation we're in right now. We're really in a pussy generation. Everybody's walking on eggshells. We see people accusing people of being racist and all kinds of stuff. When I grew up, those things weren't called racist. And then when I did Gran Torino, even my associate said, "This is a really good script, but it's politically incorrect." And I said, "Good. Let me read it tonight." The next morning, I came in and I threw it on his desk and I said, "We're starting this immediately."
ESQ: What is the "pussy generation"?
CE: All these people that say, "Oh, you can't do that, and you can't do this, and you can't say that." I guess it's just the times.

Yutaは米国に済んだことがないので土地勘がないのですが、今回のミシェル夫人の騒動はこの土地で起こったと聞けば土地勘のある人なら全く驚かないかもしれないなと思いました。