Sarah Palin got in some trouble on Wednesday for calling President Barack Obama’s response to the Benghazi attack a “shuck and jive schtick.” People criticized it as racist, and dug into the term’s origins in black slang to show why. On Wednesday night, Palin responded to the criticism on her favorite forum, Facebook, pointing out that she’s in company with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, among others, in using the phrase. “The fact that Mr. Cuomo and I used the phrase in relation to President Obama signifies nothing out of the ordinary,” she wrote, insisting she’d have said it regardless of the president’s race.
The real crime here: media racism against Palin’s extended family. Palin says “shuck and jive” most often to daughter Piper, “part Yup’ik Eskimo,” when Piper procrastinates on her homework. “Just to be careful, from now on I’ll avoid using it with Piper, and I would appreciate it if the media refrained from using words and phrases like igloo, Eskimo Pie, and ‘when hell freezes over,’ as they might be considered offensive by my extended Alaska Native family.” Do we really say all that stuff too much? Well, let’s all just put the racial sarcasm down now and go back to familiar territory, like messing around with super-PACs, shall we?
