FALLS CHURCH, VA  ---  “I just want him to apologize to me,” 20-year old S.R. Sidarth, an Indian American, simply said when asked in a National Public Radio interview what he would like Senator George Allen to do after he referred to him as “macaca,” a term for a certain type of monkey as well as a derogatory term used in some foreign countries.

                “I was pretty humiliated by what he said…and somewhat appalled that a senator of the United States would say that,” he added. “If he singled me out of the crowd, it is his obligation to make his apology to me personally.”

                Commenting on Allen’s added remarks “Welcome to America” and “to the real world of Virginia,” Sidarth said, “It’s ironic that he said that…it is hurtful…as it is a reference to immigrants in general.”

                The first-term and former Governor of Virginia must have taken Sidarth’s comment to heart. 

                On Aug. 24, the Washington Post reported that Allen apologized to Sidarth in a telephone call that he made after a bruising two-week barrage of publicity that beamed beyond Virginia, and to the rest of the country and the world. 

                Allen, a highly regarded Republican and possible presidential candidate in 2008, was reported to have directly telephoned Sidarth and apologized to him.

                According to the Post story, Sidarth said Allen told him the apology was “from the heart.

                “His main point was he was sorry he offended me,” Sidarth told the Post in an interview, “He realized how much he offended me from the comments I made to the media.”

                The macaca-calling incident happened in Aug. 11 during a campaign speech Allen, who is running for reelection, made in Breaks, Virginia, near the Kentucky border.  His opponent, former Republican Secretary of the Navy turned Democrat, is James Webb, for whom Sidarth works as a campaign volunteer taking video shots of Allen as he trails him around his public appearances.  Video-carrying trailers have apparently become standard in modern-day political campaigns.

                As reported by the Post on Aug. 15, Allen’s remarks, which were caught on video, went as follow:

                "‘This fellow here over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great. We're going to places all over Virginia, and he's having it on film and its great to have you here and you show it to your opponent because he's never been there and probably will never come.’"

The report went on:  “After telling the crowd that Webb was raising money in California with a ‘bunch of Hollywood movie moguls,’ Allen again referenced Sidarth, who was born and raised in Fairfax County.

" ‘Lets give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia,’" said Allen, who then began talking about the ‘war on terror.’"

In the Post interview, Sidarth said he suspected Allen singled him out because he was the only non-white face in the audience, which he estimated included about 100 Republican supporters.

"I think he was doing it because he could and I was the person of color there and it was useful for him in inciting his audience," said Sidarth.

                Allen had made apologies earlier – in a public way, such as on the Fox Sean Hannity talk show – saying that he did not intend to offend the young man, and that he did not know what the word “macaca” meant other than what his staff had referred to Sidarth because of his haircut which looked like the “Mohawk” style.

                Meanwhile the hot-button issue had become a subject of partisan exchange.

                 Kristian Denny Todd, a Webb spokeswoman, wanted to know what Allen meant by macaca. "We would like Senator Allen to tell us exactly what he means by the comment," she said. “Is he saying that Sidarth is a monkey?”

                But Allen campaign manager Dick Wadhams, according to reports, said Allen had “nothing to apologize for” to the young man.

                Some placard-bearing partisan groups faced President George W. Bush, during a fund-raising campaign in Virginia, one dumping on Allen, and the other proclaiming their love for him.

                Vellie Sandalo Dietrich-Hall, who founded the Filipino American Republicans of Virginia (FARV) and who consequently was appointed by Bush to the White House Advisory Commission of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, told Asian Fortune that the media is making too much of the incident in an unbalanced way.

                “Democrats have made comments too, but they are not given the same blown up attention as they are giving to Allen,” she said.  She added that he is a good man and that contrary to what “the media seem to suggest,” Allen does not have negative attitudes regarding people of other cultures.

                Allen keynoted FARV’s anniversary gala held in Virginia Beach, even tried the Filipino bamboo dance. He also sponsored a Senate resolution honoring the services and heroism of Filipino World War II veterans.

                Sidarth, a senior student at the University of Virginia, was born and raised in Northern Virginia, and is among the growing 80,000-strong Indian American community which has become active contributors to the state’s economy, business and public service. 

                Typically educated with advanced degrees, they are doctors, business entrepreneurs, and high-tech professionals, one of whom, Anesh P. Chopra, was appointed by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as Secretary of Technology, the first Indian American to hold a Virginia cabinet post.

                Reached by Asian Fortune for reactions, Zahir John Mohamad, an Indian American who lives in Arlington, VA and works for Amnesty International, said on the phone, “It’s clearly an insensitive remark that, taken into context, reflects a political landscape where remarks like these are very common, and often directed at Arabs and South Asians.”

                He said of Allen, “Clearly he made a blunder…[but] it also shows a xenophobic vilification of immigrants.”

                Ayesha Mian, a 25-year old Pakistani American who just finished her medical training in George Washington University and will be starting her residency in psychiatry at the GWU Hospital, told Asian Fortune, “I did not expect that someone educated could say something like that…I have not talked to friends about it…I’ve been very busy…but comments like these are commonly said all the time…that it does not stir anger anymore sometimes.”

                On reflecting a little bit more, she added on the cell phone, “It’s very insensitive…we are in the middle of war, we already have a lot of anti-sentiments going on…it’s not right and responsible for a politician to say that.”

                Welcome to America? To the real world of Virginia?