Sarah Palin under fire for racist ‘shuck and jive’ attack on Obama

Washington - Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin has stirred up controversy after she attacked President Barack Obama over his response to the US consulate attack in Libya.

Palin tweeted racially loaded term, “shuck and jive,” accusing Obama of ignoring early e-mail warnings that a terror group had taken responsibility for the deadly protest last month at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

“Why the lies? Why the cover up?” Palin wrote on Facebook, adding, “We deserve answers to this. President Obama’s shuck and jive shtick with these Benghazi lies must end.”

According to the New York daily News, while her online post was meant to draw attention to the early e-mail warnings sent to the White House just after the attack, some social media users instead expressed outrage over the racial connotation that was dredged up, the report said.

"How very racist and stereotyped you are!" blasted Twitter user @pat1944, adding: "Thank God you never got to be a heart beat away from the president!"

CNN contributor Roland Martin wrote in 2008 that the "shuck and jive" term dates back to the 1870s and was an “originally southern ‘Negro’ expression for clowning, lying, pretense,” according to the book “Juba to Jive.”

“‘Shucking and jiving’ have long been words used as a negative assessment of African Americans, along the lines of a ‘foot shufflin’ Negro,’” Martin wrote, adding: “In fact, I don’t recall ever hearing the phrase used in reference to anyone white.”

According to the report, Martin, at the time, was responding to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, then the state attorney general, who used ‘shuck and jive’ in reference to the Democratic primary race between front-runners Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Cuomo later said he wasn’t referencing Obama.

According to the report, meanwhile, Palin’s use of those same words “shows her ignorance” and distracts from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign, said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University.

“As a governor, she should know the meaning behind it. Alaska has a very historic black population,” Greer said, adding that the use of loaded language is “what happens when people get desperate.”