Uppity: Revisiting it again

The story so far: Congressman Lynn Westmoreland called Sen. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, uppity. Eighth District Congressional hopeful Rick Goddard called black MSNBC reporter Ron Allen uppity. Both men are white Republicans. Reaction, ranging from "who cares" to "I'm outraged" ensued. Except I'm not sure anyone has actually been outraged.

Below is an interview I did with Charles Richardson, the editorial board editor here at The Telegraph, and co-host of the radio show (6-9 a.m. in Macon, 100.9 FM and on demand at macon.com) Goddard's comment occurred on. If you believe our letter writers, Charles trends liberal. If you believe his skin color, he's also a black man.

Charles: Our callers have pretty much ranged from, they saw no problem with it to, really, just a few that did. They were more incredulous, not about Goddard, but... Westmoreland.

Me: Can you use the word uppity in reference to a black person without it being insulting? Is that even possible?

Charles: You know, I don't know. I think the word has a long history. I don't find it insulting, personally. But I can tell you that I bet you my father in law who's 78 would think it was an insult. In fact I know he'd think it was an insult. In fact he's the one who called me from Washington and first called me about it..... He didn't hear Goddard, he heard Lynn Westmoreland's comment. ...

Whether he knew what the word meant or not, (Goddard) was also rather unlucky and inaccurate. He described the reporter, Ron Allen from MSNBC, as an arrogant, uppity reporter. Well, we played the clip back of what Ron Allen said and he was - he asked (Newt Gingrich) one question. Newt went off on him and then asked him to comment and he refused. He didn't take the bait. For Goddard to say "oh, this arrogant, uppity reporter," who happened to be black, that was an inaccurate statement.

Me: Bottom line, do you think people should think about this when they go into the voting booth?

Charles: Not really. I actually think it's probably just a minor thing. Goddard's biggest problem is that he's a general. And generals behave a certain way. And he's a fighter pilot and fighter pilots, as a rule, generally, not globally, think a lot of themselves. They're uppity. (We both laugh).

Me: Is there any reason to think he's a racist?

Charles: I don't think he could have commanded 25,000 people out at Robins Air Force Base and been a racist. Something other than the word uppity would have come out of his mouth.

Bottom line: Charles and I are now in trouble for insulting generals and fighter pilots.

UPDATE: Edited at 8:30 to shorten and remove redundancies. I also added the line "Except I'm not sure anyone has actually been outraged."