One thing Know Nothings refuse to accept while railing about illegals is how, despite protestations to the contrary, their song is OLD. Even when stressing that LEGAL Mexicans are fine–it's just the ILLEGAL ones with whom they have a problem–they're just following the same ideological games set 150 ago, except back in those days, the distinction was between the supposed pure-blooded “Spanish” Mexican and the evil mestizo Mexican. And I do believe I've discovered the most hilarious hair-splitting of the genre in the microfilm of the Los Angeles Times.
Mexico, claiming to know the difference between those two types of
Mexicans.
]
The Spanish Mexican “boasts of a descent from pure Castilian blood” and is “bright, active and intelligent,” Covert claimed, as big a lie as Dana Rohrabacher claiming he ain't racist. But the “greaser” Mexican was “lazy, thriftless, ignorant, superstitious and unstable. . . . On the ranch or village home of the 'Greaser' Mexican, everything bears the stamp of negligence and shiftlessness. Their gaunt, sharp-nosed, long-legged and tan-colored hogs share with their owners in the comforts of the family residence.”
And it goes on like this. What's remarkable about the letter is it nearly reads word-for-word like the points Orange County Register readers make when railing about SanTana–and yet they insist they're not racist. Didn't they ever read the Dillingham Commission report?
