Oh me, oh my

mohandasgandhi:

peroquevaina:

Univision News - iLatino explores the S*** politicians say to Latinos (by Univision)

laughing so I don’t cry

This is pretty tame compared to the stuff that’s out there - and it’s pretty common. Let’s explore some of the lovely things politicians have had to say about Latin@s, shall we?

“I might have tacos when I go home, I’m not quite sure yet.” - East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo when asked by New York City-based WPIX reporter Mario Diaz, “What are you going to do for the Latino community today?”

“For poor minorities, entrepreneurship in small business is the key to future wealth. This is understood thoroughly by most of the Asians, partially by Latinos, and to a tragically small degree by much of the American black community.” - Newt Gingrich in a 1993 speech

“There is substantial evidence that some of these fires have been caused by people who have crossed our border illegally. They have set fires because they want to signal others. They have set fires to keep warm. And they have set fires in order to divert law enforcement agents and agencies from them. So the answer to that part of the problem is get a secure border.” - John McCain at a June 2011 press conference

“You have lots of ‘splainin’ to do!” - Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn during Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings

“The chimichanga? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer Latinos.” - Dana Milbank from the Washington Post, then retweeted by Obama’s campaign chief Jim Messina calling it the “line of the day”

“You know Arizona has been under terrorist attacks, if you will, with all of this illegal immigration that has been taking place on our very porous border… The whole issue comes back, that we do not and will not tolerate illegal immigration bringing with it very much so the implications of crime and terrorism into our state.” - Arizona Governor Jan Brewer in an interview on Fox News

“Let’s talk about the facts behind illegal immigrants. They do commit crimes. They are more likely to drive uninsured. More likely to clog up hospital waiting rooms. More likely to be involved in anti-social behavior because they have learned that breaking the law brings more benefit to them than abiding by it…. Right now, hundreds of illegal immigrants are crossing the border almost every day. Some of them are part of drug cartels. Some are career criminals. Some may even be terrorists.” - GOP strategist Frank Luntz in a memo circulated to Republicans

“As your congressman on the house floor, I will do anything short of shooting them. Anything that is lawful, it needs to be done because illegal aliens need to quit taking jobs from American citizens.” - Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks in an interview with Venton Blandin

“They will look at the kind of dress you wear, there’s different type of attire, there’s different type of …right down to the shoes, right down to the clothes. But mostly by behavior it’s mostly behavior, just as the law enforcement people here in Washington, DC does it based on certain criminal activity there is behavior things that professionals are trained in across the board and this group shouldn’t be exempt from those observations as much as anybody else.” - California Rep. Brian Bilbray in an interview on MSNBC with Chris Matthews

“Looks like to me, if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works, maybe we have found a (solution) to our illegal immigration problem.” - Kansas Rep. Virgil Peck during an appropriations committee meeting

“Go to your local schools and find 25% of your kids being illegal aliens, and having, and bringing down the education level of everybody else; having our health care being drained of resources, when we can’t even take care of our own; yeah, go ahead and vote for liberals! Go ahead and vote for liberals if you want to give education, health care, and money to people who come here illegally!” - California Rep. Dana Rohrbacher on Real Time with Bill Maher

There are quite simply too many quotes to post and this type of language is creating an incredibly dangerous atmosphere. Gabriel Thompson nails it on Colorlines: How the Right Made Racism Sound Fair—and Changed Immigration Politics