Kansas Republican Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins made a mistake last week!   In answering a question during a meeting with Young Republicans in Hiawatha on August 19th, she said:  "Republicans are struggling right now to find the "great white hope"

OOOPS!!   From a constituent's meeting in a small Kansas town to the national news media in the space of a week.  Thanks to the wonder of the camera phone.  You see, "The phrase "great white hope" dates to the early 1900's when white Americans were looking for a white boxer to defeat Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champ."   Probably not the phrase you want to use when discussing how your predominantly white political party is trying to figure out how to defeat the country's first black President.

Fox4's local coverage reports:

On Friday, Jenkins claims that she didn't realize the racial significance of the phrase "great white hope," and didn't mean to offend anyone. But according to a University of Missouri, Kansas City political scientist, the phrase suggests that the GOP is looking for a white politician to defeat Barack Obama, the nation's first African-American president.

"There is a racist connotation when you say the great white hope, even if you don't mean that," said Prof. Max Skidmore of UMKC. "There is an undercurrent a habit of thought that it reflects."

Jenkins says that it was a comparison that she did not intend to make. She says that she was responding to a question from someone asking about the future of the Republican Party.

"I responded to that inquiry by saying that there were some bright lights, some hope in the Republican party for the conservatives in the crowd," said Jenkins. "Obviously I had no idea there were negative connotations associated with that phrase and apologize if someone has misinterpreted those comments."

The comment, whether it was meant to be racist or not (and I really don't think it was meant that way) was NOT a good choice of wording under any context.   "The great white hope" is a phrase that I heard often growing up.   (But then, I grew up in the Ozarks.  I graduated from a class of over 400....with only 4 black students in the entire school.   So my exposure to people who might have taken exception to the phrase was severely limited.)

So, it is very possible that she was just using a phrase that she had heard so often growing up that it's lost it's cultural context to her.  There are lots of those phrases I heard daily growing up in southern Missouri that today I shudder at the thought that I or my parents used them.  "N*gg&r in the woodpile", "jew" down the price, "chinese fire drill", etc.   In a past world where Archie Bunker was the norm and not just a funny character on TVLand, these phrases were common.  But today we are more aware that while a phrase might just be a cute saying to some, it can be an extremely hurtful comment to others. 

The use of these types of phrases are not wise for anyone with aspirations of public office in this age of camera phones.   But it is not the end of the world.    It especially is not the end of the world when she responds quickly to the criticisms with a very simple apology!

No bitter fight to prove that she really didn't do anything wrong.  No discussion of what others say that's worse than what she said.  No tirade against a media that is biased against conservatives.  No commentary on who she has heard say the same thing in the past.

She simply said she didn't realize the context of the saying and she was sorry for any offense it caused.  She took the blame. 

That's class!

Now some will say that she HAD to realize the context of her words, but absent any other slips of the tongue, that's a hard case to make.  So it's time to drop the story and move on!    I wouldn't vote for Congresswoman Jenkins if I lived in her district but I can at least respect her integrity!

(And of course, if she continues to make such mistakes....we hold her responsible for them!)