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While the English-language media has largely given Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a pass for his latest musings on ethnicity, Daniel Hernandez blogs that today's La Opinión went with a headline that screamed Governor attacks Mexicans and Spanish-language radio has been all riled up. Hernandez:
"Attacks" seems a bit strong, as these were off-the-record musings, but the subtext of outrage seems entirely appropriate....Imagine, for the sake of discussion, how the English-language press would respond if the governor's disparaging comments on Mexicans would have been directed in some form at Jews or African Americans. I can't find any voices in English countering the patently prejudicial idea that Mexican immigrants resist assimilating, much less any discussion on what these antiquated ideas of "assimilation" even mean anymore. The unequal distribution of L.A. media anger on this story is especially stinging in Latino Los Angeles....
And people wonder why Mexicans and other Latinos feel under attack in this country and lash back in emotional ways.
What the governor said, in tapes obtained by the Times, can be read here and here and here.