Posted on 05/16/2005 6:38:10 PM PDT by LouAvul
President Vicente Fox reversed course Monday night and apologized for saying that Mexicans in the United States do the work that blacks won't.
Fox repeatedly refused to back away from his Friday comment, saying his remark had been misinterpreted. But later, in telephone conversations with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton the president said he "regretted" the statement.
"The president regretted any hurt feelings his statements may have caused," the Foreign Relations Department said in a press statement. "He expressed the great respect he and his administration has for the African-American community in the United States."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City had raised the issue with the Mexican government. "That's a very insensitive and inappropriate way to phrase this and we would hope that (the Mexicans) would clarify the remarks if they have a chance," Boucher said.
Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Mexican and foreign news media have misinterpreted the remark as a racial slur. He said the president was speaking in defense of Mexican migrants as they come under attack by the new U.S. immigration measures that include a wall along the U.S.-California border.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
All those jobs got done before the latest wave of 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants came here after the Reagan Amnesty. I don't remember reading about crops rotting in the field. I frequently eat out and often stay in hotels. I remember black and white people working at those jobs. The difference is that because of the unlimited supply of cheap labor the real wage for those jobs has fallen to the point where Americans no longer want them. They can live better on welfare letting us taxpayers support them. It is not that the work was too hard for Americans, it is just that the jobs pay less than welfare. Personally, I think we would be better off with the Mexicans gone and Americans earning a decent wage to do that back breaking work and the taxpayers relieved of the welfare burden.
BEWARE of beaner backing up..(honk honk honk, etc.)
Just what are these jobs that Hispanics do, that no one else will?
I understand the difference. Fox stated that Mexicans are doing jobs blacks don't want to do. And he is being criticised for it. My slant is for his critics to prove otherwise, and show proof that blacks want to do the jobs. I am putting the burden of proof on the critics.
Those jobs were minimun wage then, and they are still minimun wage.
Yea, I don't know how they could prove that.
LOL These two race baiters have never worked a day in their lives. I wonder why Fox called them and not the secretary of State isnt she black and doesnt she represent our country?
In other words, he was saying in so many words that Mexicans will take jobs that are so menial and bad that even [poor, miserable, lowlife] blacks won't do them. It was a horrible statement in that it assumes that blacks represent the absolute bottom of the barrel of American society. Does Fox realize that plenty of American blacks aspire to do more than manual labor or work in low-paying jobs, and, believe it or not, actually get better jobs? What a shock that must be to him. He's an elitist creep and a sorry leader.
Funny: Fox never calls me -- average Joe Legal USA citizen -- to apologize for his lousy economy & corruption that leads to all them people coming here in the first palce.
Juz kidding Google & PC Police...
So a white guy from Mexico who has a policy of ethnic cleansing (getting all the mestizos to go north of the border) is really sorry for criticizing blacks, I don't think so. A racist is a racist and Vincente is a racist.
Spot on.
Fox, may only be right in his own mind since he presumes that Mexicans are being offered the same pay as American workers, but since his presumption is wrong then any statement he makes is purely hypothetical, since Mexicans can and often do end up with more take home pay for the same job than Americans.
Illegal Mexican workers do not have to pay income taxes. They can be hired by employers for less money than American workers since the employers do not have to add on the extra taxes and insurance. As a result they can take home more pay than American workers.
Then to top it off, by living here illegally their social services are paid by the American worker who has been misplaced.
Take income taxes, and free social perks from the Mexican nationals and see how many US workers will fill these jobs compared to illegal Mexican worker, and notice I say illegal (meaning the underground economy), not meaning Mexican immigrants themselves who are paying taxes, as not to misrepresent the argument as Fox is doing.
American workers by they way represent a work force that works more hours than just about any country on the planet, as surveys have pointed out. Also Americans are generally working towards an education, from their early years thorough young adult hood, which is a labor intensive task while the same time the Mexican workers , what have they done in their youth and why when they reach young adulthood do they need to flee?
So I disagree with Fox on this one if we take away his wrong presumptions.
...You could just as easily put whites into his statement...
You sure could. So this really isn't an issue of race is it.
It had been just an economic issue. But because of 9\11 and groups like MS13, it has also become a security issue.
We have to look more closely at those coming into our country now. No doubt. But it's funny to hear folks who are mad at the Mexicans who come here and get things from our government. That outrage should be directed at our government for giving it to them.
I'll bet Fox is being pounded on black talk radio.
Lookie what Fox said:
"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."He said "...not even blacks..." as though blacks were somehow in a lower rank. His condescending and racist remark also insinuates that blacks are "lazy."
Fox is wrong in that, and in the fact that his remark attempts to justify illegal immigration from Mexico.
The real problem here isn't that anyone is lazy or that some jobs are undesirable, but that the wages for the jobs are too low. It is a fact that the jobs filled by illegals are often times below the minimum wage. Since they aren't citizens, there is no obligation to pay the minimum. It's an economic choice by the employer to have workers to exploit--i.e., Mexicans.
Abolish the minimum wage on these jobs, and you'd have plenty of teenagers and low-income persons willing to fill them.
"These two race baiters have never worked a day in their lives. I wonder why Fox called them and not the secretary of State isnt she black and doesnt she represent our country?"
There's an easy answer to that question - Fox makes a corrupt bargain with Sharpton and Jackson - he gets to fess up to them and have a love-in together for public consumption, and they give him some cover on both this little scandal and also on illegal immigration.... they can use the occasion to dump on the USA, the Minutemen, etc. Unfortunately, it's a "WIN-WIN" for leftist charlatans like Fox, Sharpton, and Jackson who collaborate in dealing with these sorts of issues.
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