Those racist Mexicans!

In the above linked CNN.com article, Mexican President Vicente Fox refuses to apologize for his comment that Mexicans take jobs in the US that "even blacks" won't do.

He maintains that his comments were taken out of context and misinterpreted and he won't apologize. He did express his regret at any hurt feelings caused by his remarks to Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

So, in what different ways could his comments have been interpreted?

- He could have meant that blacks are actually lazier than Mexicans, so stop perpetuating those stereotypes of lazy Mexicans and replace them with stereotypes of lazy blacks!

- He could have meant that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were personally unwilling to do those jobs, and that is why he chose to express his regrets to those two individuals.

- He could have made his remarks thinking that not many blacks vote in Mexico, so they were okay to slam.

- He could have been addressing the concerns that illegal immigrants take jobs away from "real Americans" by assuring us that they were really only taking jobs away from blacks, who everybody knows don't count as "real Americans," so don't be so uptight.

- He could have been saying that as natural-born citizens (for the most part), Blacks have access to social services that illegal immigrants don't, so they don't have to take jobs paying far less than minimum wage and live in abject poverty like some Mexicans do.

- He could have meant that the restaurant and hotel industries (along with American produce, although those Chilean grapes are very tasty!) would collapse without the backbreaking labor below minimum wage performed primarily by Mexicans and other Latinos to support these industries, and that illegals and semi-legals are desperate enough to actually do this work, while US citizens (of whom some are black) have not gotten desperate enough to do them... yet.

- He could have meant that he was just trying to emulate American-style politics after all the rhetoric he'd heard from politicians like our governor who praise citizens who take it upon themselves to use dogs and guns to keep our nation free of cheap labor from south of the border. Being Mexican himself, he couldn't really make the Mexicans the scapegoats for all of our woes, so he thought he'd try the second most popular gambit of American politicians and blame it on black criminals and welfare queens.

So many possible interpretations, which is the one he meant? I like what Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, the archbishop of Mexico City, said about the controversy: "The declaration had nothing to do with racism. It is a reality in the United States that anyone can prove."

Is it true? If it is, should someone be persecuted for saying something that's true but an "uncomfortable" truth? Politicians are able to get away with a lot of rhetoric, but they know that if something was actually done to crack down on illegal immigration, our economy would take a huge hit and we'd soon be falling over ourselves to come up with some sort of "guest worker" program that would let us continue to use these people for cheap labor without having to provide the whole range of social services to them that legal residents are entitled to. No matter what they say, most politicians don't want to close the borders. They're smart enough to know that our ability to enjoy the standard of living that we do is contingent upon a cheap labor pool to keep the system going.

Next time, Vicente, try blaming the El Salvadoreans. I doubt you'd make too many enemies in Washington that way.

- "Do you have anything besides Mexican food?"