Not everyone thinks this, but I know an extreme right-winger who thinks this. He is also a conspiracy theorist who thinks non-white people are out to get white people so, yeah, odd.
Not every immigrant is illegal or bad. I know a girl who didn’t speak English for 3 years when her family legally immigrated, so of course she’s been told this.
I feel both superior and stupid at the same time in this moment. I don’t know what a “wetback” is. Based on context I’m going to guess it’s some kind of racist remark that doesn’t apply to Ukrainains. But for the life of me, I can’t think of what it would even be saying.
So I feel stupid for not knowing…but also like I’m probably the better person for NOT knowing.
it’s a racial slur against latin americans. it’s referencing backstroking across the rio grande
A thousand guesses, and I would have eventually landed on it being against Latinos (necause there’s only so many races). But I never would have correctly guessed the Rio Grande part.
That’s some very very specific racism right there.
Biologically, there are no multiple human races. There is a single human species. Socially, there are an infinite number of races.
wiki
The use of races to distinguish people socially is playing right into the racists’ playbook by forcing you to play on their turf, where reason is out of the window.
race is a social construct. it’s a tool of the oppressor.
Unfortunately I’m familiar with the term. It refers to Latin people immigrating into the U.S. without documentation by swimming across the Rio Grande river which forms part of the border between the U.S. and Mexico.