Well that didn't take long. Obviously any conservative that doesn't immediately denounce this comment is a racist because bigtexxx said so. GOP lawmaker calls Hispanic workers ‘wetbacks’ http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/...nic-workers-wetbacks-124131854--politics.html During a discussion about ongoing challenges to the economy Thursday, Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young referred to Hispanic workers as "wetbacks," an ethnic slur used to describe migrant workers. “My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” Young told Alaska public radio station KRBD. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.” The term "wetback" is a pejorative term that has been used to describe workers from Latin American countries who swim across the Rio Grande to reach the United States. Young's comments come just weeks after the Republican National Committee called for candidates and lawmakers to soften their tone when discussing Hispanic Americans and immigrants in an effort to engage Latino voters after getting only 30 percent of their vote in the 2012 presidential election. Republicans are currently working with Democrats in Congress to shape a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration system, and comments like Young's could serve as a distraction from those bipartisan efforts. In a statement to the Anchorage Daily News, Young said he meant "no disrespect" when he used the term. "I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in Central California," Young said in the statement. "I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect." House Speaker John Boehner condemned Young's comments Friday morning and demanded that he apologize. "Congressman Young’s remarks were offensive and beneath the dignity of the office he holds," Boehner said in a written statement. "I don’t care why he said it – there’s no excuse and it warrants an immediate apology.”
This was not always the ugly term that it has devolved into being. It was a term cited by President Eisenhower and was even the name of an operation undertaken by the Feds to round up illegal aliens back in the fifties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback Dumb for the guy to use it but I don't think he should be disparaged like he is being.
yeah and he hasn't figured out in the 50+ years afterwards that it's not cool to say anymore? Stop it. You can't play that card anymore with a person of his position.
Never understood the term "willnotrepeatword". But when you swim across the RGV or whatever, is it only your back that gets wet? Doesn't your whole body face etc get wet too. Around here in Phoenix, you hear that word a lot. I've been called a spik? once and I'm not even Hispanic.
Yes you can because as far as we know this is the only incidence of this kind of bad judgment. Like ATW, call him a "dumbass" but to call him a "racist" is nothing but over-the-top destruction... and he doesn't seem deserving of that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetback_(slur) "It also can be used as an adjective and a verb. As an adjective, it pertains to activities involving illegal Mexican immigrants. It was first used in this way by John Steinbeck in Sweet Thursday [1954] as he wrote, "How did he get in the wet-back business?" Its usage as a verb was originally mentioned in 1978 in Thomas Sanchez's Hollywoodland, where the term meant, "to gain illegal entry into the United States by swimming the Rio Grande".[4]
It's not racist? Would you go up to any latino and call him a weback? No, you wouldn't. That's because you're a decent human. Stop making excuses. Why don't you ask some Latinos if they find a whiteman calling people that is racist or not?
I haven't see one of his threads in a long time. Maybe we should get SamFisher to do a proof of life?
See... right there. In your mind, you equate this guys rambling remark with going up and confronting someone face to face. It wasn't like that. Dave Chappelle and Charles Barkley call me a honkey just about every week. They are both getting rich off of it.... The headline chosen here by CometsWin is very broad: TYPICAL RACIST WHITE CONSERVATIVE So according to CW, Conservatives are typically racist. That is a calculated and deliberated position to take. Much more than a slip of the tongue and more than a hundred times more offensive. At least. In her C/P, she even left out Young's apology: "I apologize for the insensitive term I used during an interview in Ketchikan, Alaska," Young said. "There was no malice in my heart or intent to offend; it was a poor choice of words. That word, and the negative attitudes that come with it, should be left in the 20th century, and I'm sorry that this has shifted our focus away from comprehensive immigration reform."
LOL @ republicans thinking they could pass immigration reform and that latinos would magically come back to their party!
I don't even know why this is news anymore, these "slip ups" remind me of when the KKK hold rallies to drum up controversy. It's more of an look at me, I'm a white racists ain't I bad. honestly this guy is just speaking to his constituents anyway, these guys are sad to me.
I suggest that you listen to it; have you? It's but one word in a six-minute interview. It is so incidental to the subject matter that it actually got "published." The entire piece is very supportive of Young and does not seek to capitalize on his slip-up. The guy is 80 YO and the term was much more innocent in his youth. As I pointed out it was even used by the Federal government as the name of an effort to gather up illegal aliens.
Perhaps when you are 80, you should retire from politics. Society changes so quickly that it has obviously passed him by.
Maybe so. I'm a term limits supporter. Don't want professional politicians. Does the term "moving the goalpost" have relevance in a situation like this? I think so.
