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MIAMI ? House Rep. Henry Bonilla, a founding member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (search), has taken back his demand that Rep. Corrine Brown (search) resign her seat in Congress for remarks she made accusing the Bush administration of racism in its Haiti policy.

But even after Bonilla accepted Brown's apology, he said the fact that her comments raised few hackles demonstrates a double standard among Democratic Party members.

"If a Republican had made such derogatory, insulting and discriminatory remarks there would be a firestorm of outrage. The current silence is deafening," Bonilla, R-Texas, said. "If we truly advocate zero tolerance for racism, then we must insist the statement be addressed."

Brown, D-Fla., issued an apology on Thursday for remarks she made a day earlier when she said Hispanics and whites "all look alike to me."

Brown made the statement during a Wednesday briefing on Haiti with Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega (search), a Mexican-American, and the Florida congressional delegation. During the meeting, attended by about 30 people, Brown sat across the table from Noriega and launched an attack on President Bush's policy on Haiti (search).

She said Republican leaders were "racist" in their policies toward the Caribbean nation, which is almost entirely black, and called the president's representatives "a bunch of white men." [TYOK Note: Is Condi Rice white, or a man? how about Colin Powell, I thought he was black]

"I sincerely did not mean to offend Secretary Noriega or anyone in the room. Rather, my comments, as they relate to 'white men,' were aimed at the policies of the Bush administration as they pertain to Haiti, which I do consider to be racist," Brown said in a statement on Thursday.

Brown added that she was offended that the meeting on the crisis in Haiti, led by administration officials, "turned into a diatribe rebuking the Haitian government and the Haitian people. I was personally insulted by the anti-Haiti sentiment brought to the table by the State Department and by Republican members of Congress in attendance," she said.

Brown also wrote a letter to Noriega, in which she apologized again "if what I said was construed as a personal affront."

"The State Department delegation that came to meet with us did not include any females or people of color. Given the racial makeup of the people of Haiti, who are 95 percent of African descent, I felt the delegation and the delegation's position were callous and out of touch with the needs (cultural and otherwise) of the Haitian people," she wrote.

After the dressing down, which sent a hush over the hour-long meeting, Noriega responded that he would relay her comments to Secretary of State Colin Powell (search) and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice (search), both high-level African-American members of the Bush administration. Rice is also female.

Participants in the meeting said Noriega later told Brown: "As a Mexican-American, I deeply resent being called a racist and branded a white man."

Noriega also pointed to Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (search), a Republican member of the delegation who was born in Cuba, and asked whether he appeared to be a white man. Diaz-Balart's brother, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (search), is also a congressional member from the state.

Brown's response, according to witnesses, was: "You all look alike to me."

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Alex123 said:

What have the *nigras* done now?

Can't we just send them all back to where they came from? 

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Phluck said:

How is the phrase "a bunch of white men" racist? It contains no slurs, and is mostly accurate. (Aside from Rice and Powell, the token black members)

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So, if John Kerry were to say "Gosh, all negros look alike to me", you think that would be fine, right?

Or if Trent Lott were to congradulate a long-time elected representative, who happend to, in his past, be racist, you wouldn't think that was a problem right, since it wasn't overtly racist?

Methinks not

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Sane people - How do you think that the libbies will make this appear to be a teensy little mistake

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Gijith said:

What a suprise, Fox News.
That's some wicked liberal leaning media.

PS: You're a racist.

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Innvertigo said:

Why is he a racist?

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Gijith said:

Innvertigo said:

Why is he a racist?

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Yeah, I kinda just threw that in there. Just a guess. Sorry if I'm wrong, TheOneYouKnow.

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Quote:

Yeah, I kinda just threw that in there. Just a guess.

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TheOneYouKnow said:

questioning my beliefs don't change the facts about what happened.

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Phluck said:

Okay, I apologize, I missed the part where she said that hispanics and whites looked alike. I think that's a pretty retarded thing to say. The part about the republican party being "a bunch of white men", is pretty accurate though.

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