Racial Stereotypes

In the little message board attached to a story in the Arizona Republic, the discussion turned to immigration*. Anti-immigration posters brought up the usual litany of evils brought to this country by illegal aliens or Latinos** -- stealing jobs, crime, poor sanitation, putting up signs in Spanish, etc. One person's big complaint, though, was that his illegal neighbors would spend 20 minutes revving their truck engines in the driveway every morning***.

As it happens, I had the pleasure of being woken up a few days ago by 20 minutes of truck-engine revving. I live in a racially mixed apartment complex, but my assumption was not that it was a Latino. The image in my head was of a redneck-type white guy.


* I don't recall which one, because every discussion on the Republic's site turns into a debate about immigration.

** They have quite a time telling these two groups apart, depite their constant lecturing on the difference between good legal immigrants (like their own families) and bad illegal immigrants.

*** Apparently when you get your green card, they give you a coupon for a hybrid.