So I've been thinking a bit about Mexican-US and Latino-American relations a little, mainly because of some stuff in the news lately. First there was the issue about banning illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses. I do admit that this particular issue does strike me as kind of weird, considering that illegal immigrants are here, well, illegally, and so it's odd to think about government issuing licenses to non-citizens. Not that it's a bad idea necessarily, but I do see the point of those who oppose these licenses.

Then there was the comment made by Mexican President Vicente Fox that (as it's been translated): "There's no doubt that Mexican men and women -- full of dignity, willpower and a capacity for work -- are doing the work that not even blacks want to do in the United States." Needless to say that didn't go over too well with a lot of folks, and President Fox has backed away and apologized, or almost apologized at least, for this statement.

Yet I did find a grain of truth, kinda, in the statement. What I mean is that, in a lot of ways, Latinos, especially illegal immigrants, have taken up the role formerly played by blacks in the US. In popular wisdom and culture they're expected to do a lot of the menial work, and stereotypes and racism toward them are allowed to be overtly expressed in ways that are no longer socially acceptable (or at least no longer as socially acceptable) to do against blacks.

Even government gets into the act. See, for instance, the so-called Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus: http://tancredo.house.gov/irc/welcome.htm
I was surprised that elected officials in our government could be so, let's say "unthoughtful" in their politics and opinions. Some of their arguments just seem to me to be kinda garbage-see for instance immigration's impact on "Culture" (their entire "argument" is that the amount of immigrants has increased. I guess this is supposed to imply something, but they don't tell you what).

On the other hand you have the President's Guest Worker proposal that he laid out a while back. I haven't evaluated all the aspects of this idea, but the part that disturbs me is the idea of immigrants doing jobs that Americans "refuse to do." While this may be a reality, I am very disturbed that such a social stratisfication would be accepted and endorsed by our leaders. I mean, is this really so different from President Fox's comment? So, basically, some jobs are beneath us but are ok for others (formerly blacks, now Latino immigrants) to do? Ah, America. sigh