The Washington Post put Latino organizing efforts for illegal immigrants on the front page again Tuesday with the headline “Latinos Unite Across Classes Against Curbs on Immigration.” (The word “illegal” in front of immigration didn’t fit?) Reporter Pamela Constable quoted no one opposed to illegal immigration in her story, but that didn’t mean racist-sounding Americans weren’t quoted. The surprise: the racially insulting quote came from a wealthy Colombian-born businessman, Jose Marinay, who suggested he was scary to white people when he “looked Latino,” dressed down and went unshaven:
"I dress well, and I drive a nice car. But on the weekends, when I am in shorts and sandals and I haven't shaved, I look Latino enough to scare a few folks," Marinay said. "There is a definite chill in the air. We may be a fragmented community, we may eat or celebrate in different places, but now they are looking at us in the same way. If we don't unite and work together, we will all sink."
In general, the story is another set of sympathetic portraits of hard-working Latinos who weep on street curbs over how they're hated by the Angry Caucasian Menace. As usual, Constable's story mentions the radical leftists of Mexicans Without Borders without any label or other identification of their extreme ideology. If anything, the radicals' friendliness with the wealthy Latino lobbyists is added to grant some radical cachet to the new rich kids on the lobbying block -- that is, if these businessmen are really new to lobbying, as Constable contends.
The conservative side in Prince William County is only mentioned in passing: "Sponsors and advocates of the resolution assert it is neither anti-Latino nor anti-immigrant. They insist it is aimed at stopping the steady influx of illegal immigrants during the past decade, who they complain are crowding neighborhoods and burdening schools." Does Constable disagree with the idea that illegal immigration is adding to government spending burdens? If not why would she use "who they complain are" instead of "who are"?
