People make comments about Mexicans all the time.. Mexican-Americans... etc... However, they don't make them to a Mexican's face.. they make them to other white people.  They're looking for the other caucasian person to laugh and agree.

I live in Arizona. The common stereotypes about Mexicans are that they have too many kids and that they speak Spanish when they really should be learning English. Other concerns are that there are just too many Mexican-American's here and that they're illegal and stealing our jobs, not paying taxes and taking advantage of our social benefits and medical care.  Also, people talk about how they "steal" and don't have morals.

We have a long way to go here in Arizona.... and every time some ignorant moron goes off about Mexicans I'm not one of the people that stays quiet.  I just tell them that Arizona was formerly Mexico until the US government declared an illegal war on Mexico for the purpose of stealing their land. That's a fact. Therefore, you know what, the Mexicans were here FIRST and if you don't like it, then move back to Florida or whatever.  And I will argue, point by point, about any of the issues we face here.  Yes, there are some Mexicans or Mexican Americans who are jerks and do bad things. But I am a firm believer that all races are created with an equal number of jerks.  No one race has the corner on the market for bad people.

I hate racism. I think it's unfortunately something that people perpetuate by teaching racism to their kids.  I also think that the more stupid the person, the more likely they are to be racist.

Now, I'm friends with a lot of Hispanic people... and I also find that Puerto Ricans or Columbians think they're superior to Mexicans and will "go off" about that. Again, it's the more stupid Puerto Ricans or Columbians that perpetuate hate for Mexicans.

Also, I know a lot of Mexican-Americans who complain about illegal immigrants from Mexico. Often they are more outspoken than anyone about the issue of illegal immigration.  Finally, I know some illegal immigrants who I think are just awesome people and I really feel for their plight and wish I could help them.

Yes, there are stereotypes.. and that's different than racism though. Stereotypes can be a useful way of predicting behavior. For example, since we're talking about Mexican-Americans, one stereotype is that they are closer to their families and do more together as a family unit. So, although some people make fun of Mexican families for all piling together in the car to go somewhere (including Mexicans) it's often because they do more things together. It's not necessarily because they're poor or they "have to" it's because they want to... and because they value doing things as a family.  That's actually a very good thing, in my opinion. What's wrong with having big families? I'm Irish-American and we are known for big families...

Where racism comes into play is where it comes back to this subtle hatred and threat of violence. And that brings me back to the cartoon that started this whole blog post...

That cartoon is racist, because there's that "secret hand-shake" "wink-wink" under the covers threat of bigotry and violence... That cartoon alludes to the fact that racist white people often say that African Americans are more like monkeys AND the fact that some of these racist bastards would like to see Obama get shot. I'm telling you, Cenk is too naive about this stuff. The cartoon is racist. It was wrong.

You are advocating a double standard based stickly on race. If the president is white it's okay to do an entire website Bushorchimp.com making fun of how Bush looks like a chimp, but an innocuous cartoon about the author of the stimulus bill is taboo.

Either both or acceptable or neither are acceptable. Double standards continue to promote racism and bigotry.

"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative." John Stuart Mill