Carlos Lozada Quotes
Maybe Mexicans are lazy except when they’re taking everyone’s jobs.
This quotation is a wonderful use of sarcasm to make an important point in just a few words.
Carlos Lozada, "Samuel Huntington, a prophet for the Trump era", The Washington Post, July 23, 2017
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
His reference was to ethnic Indians and Chinese living in Kenya and other countries of Africa. Asians are a minority group in African countries and the legally sanctioned discrimination against them is part of an ugly type of discrimination which still exists.
The Congressman was a rabid foe of immigration in general and possible illegal immigration in particular (See {614687}). As his colleagues were trying to improve the methods of identifying illegal workers at the job hiring stage, they were very concerned that law enforcment and some employers would make judgments about the likely criminal status of a person based on his/her ethnicity, race or other general superficial characteristics.
Interestingly, before 1705, there was no legislative prohibition against Indians and Free Negroes being full citizens including holding public office and voting. This act prohibited them from holding public office, but did not prohibit them from Voting provided they met the general voting requirement of being a landholder. However, 18 years later, voting by these minorities was no longer allowed. See Quotation 643588.
Describing the ethnic immigration quotas that Congress was debating in 1924:
This veiled endorsement of violence against immigrants is typical of Edwards whose show is funded by notorious hate groups. His knowledge of history leaves much to be desired. America was not accepted as a First World power for quite a while—especially by the First World nations of Europe. In 1900 Argentina was a richer country than the United States. The great growth in American wealth, culture and power took place in the 20th century with the help of large immigrations of the “dregs of Europe” and elsewhere. The Irish, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Chinese, Croations, Mexicans were all immigrants from other than the First World yet it was they who helped make America a First World nation.
The first non-PRI President in over 70 years. This racist remark caused a furor in America producing demands for an apology which were rebuffed although he stated that he regrets the misinterpretation.
The racial targets of the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League widened and they changed their name to the Asiatic Immigration Exclusion League.
Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. This usually progressive organization advocated the 8 hour work day and control of child labor but when it came to competitors for their members jobs, they became a leading racist and anti-Chinese immigration voice in America. The irony of this quotation was that most of the labor constituency that the Knights represented had been immigrants or were the children of immigrants who earlier had frightened American workers and whose ethnicity had been opposed—Irish and Italians.
As in most weak economic times there were more people than usual opposed to immigration. Of the opponents of immigration some were not racist, but a large number were very much racist. Also the racist organizations all opposed immigration. Historically almost all anti-immigration movements were racist. First it was against the Irish, then the Germans, followed by Chinese, Japanese, Italians, Eastern European Jews, and at the time of this quote it was against the Mexicans and other Hispanics.
He was a Senator from Pennsylvania when he made this remark.
Carlos Lozada is the nonfiction book critic at the Washington Post. Previously, he served as the paper’s national security editor and economics editor. Before joining the Post in 2005, he was managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine, which he helped lead to the 2003 National Magazine Award for general excellence. He has also been a Knight-Bagehot fellow in economics and business journalism at Columbia University.
