My Father Used To Have “Wetbacks"
 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczyn...o-have-wetback

Wow, I'm literally speechless.

Wow.

Yeah...that's all I've got.

It didn't even sound as though he knew any better. Wow.

Way too often, in our quest to be "right" rather than listen first, we don't give people the benefit of the doubt.

When you're talking - discussing ideas - often the terminology you were raised with comes out.

In my area, one of the most egregious examples was Senator George Allen's campaign, when he referred to an opposition researcher in the crowd as "macaca" - that and the press probably cost him the election.

On the other hand, so few high-visibility gaffes come from those who are willing to stand up and say "Oh, wow, did I mess up big time. While that is terminology I heard and used while growing up, I understand its significance and apologize for reverting."

Assuming, of course, that it's the truth.

I know I've done it. I remember using in a professional conversation the admiring statement about another who had "jewed him down to a realistic price" -- how offensive. Yet it was a term I had heard for years, and it just came out.

It's all well and good to try to hold politicians, celebrities, journalists (if you can find one), reporters, etc. to a different standard, but they *are* people.

The key should be the sincerity of the apology.

George Allen's problem was more than a slip of the tongue.

Agreed.

The GOP needs to do a lot better job of preparing their candidates. I understand his general point. Worker productivity due to automation is at an all time high. Two folks can do what used to be the work of 50 due to machinery. What'll be interesting to see is whether in a place like Alaska, voters care that a candidate used that word. I'm guessing Alaska, with its very non-diverse community, probably won't really care.

Honestly, I think Republican opponents have made a bigger deal about this than those it was "offensive" toward. I think most Mexicans have basically shrugged and said "Eh, el puto gringo called us Wetbacks. We're still here, and working jobs no one else will take. Meh.". I've seen nothing about this on Spanish tv.

This has not been my experience at all. It has been a very hot topic, with both Latinas/os and non-Latinas/os.

I think it's so indicative of a problem that is simply not going away, no matter how many tokens they can trot forth. The fact of the matter is he saw no problem with his statement until he was really hard pressed about how wrong it was. "It's just what we used to call them" is no excuse for a professional politician. Yes, as stated above, I'm sure a lot of us (including me) have had something we said innocently enough pointed out to us as being intolerable in polite society. But once it's pointed out to you, the correct response is full on embarrassment. "Oh well, that's what my parents used to say" is not expressing embarrassment. And we should expect more of people whose job description is supposed to include diplomacy. What he said was not befitting an elected official and while the Latino population in his district might just write him off as out of touch, they should get more involved in making him be an ex-despicable politician.

They are discussing this on Meet the Press this morning.

I made a similar slip of the tongue once. However, I was in 7th grade at the time.

This has been an offensive term at least since Giant (aka The Longest Movie Ever Made) came out in 1955. I would think that an adult running for public office in California would have gotten the memo by now. I wouldn't hesitate to elect him because he's a bigot, I would hesitate to do so because he's egregiously stupid.