South Carolina Politico: Blacks, Whites Don’t Work Like Latinos

Not sure if this is a back-handed comment, just plain racist or simply an honest opinion.

South Carolina State Senator Robert Ford, D-Charleston, said that Latino immigrants were necessary because whites and blacks don’t work as hard on Tuesday. He made the remarks in the context of a debate over an Arizona-esque immigration law in South Carolina.

He also alluded to the fact that because his ancestors were slaves, once they were freed, they didn’t want to do anymore hard work. So, they were replaced by Chinese and Japanese workers. Finally, he mentioned that because he took advantage of four Latino immigrants who mowed, edged and did other work in 30 minutes for the $10 he paid them, this proved his point that Latinos work hard.

Here’s the gist of what he said:

We need these workers here. A lot of people aren’t going to do certain type of work in this country. I know brothers — and I’m talking about black guys — they are not going to do the dirty work at Boeing, to do that hauling and all that building, that dirty work. A brother is going to find ways to take a break. Ever since this country was built, we’ve had somebody do the work for us.

Ford said his main point was that when people become Americanized, they stop working hard. As can be expected, he’s been getting a lot of flack for being racist, but in the context of the bill the legislators were discussing, I’m not sure who was being more racist:  The people saying some should be discriminated against because of how they look, or they guy who said the way people looked made them harder workers!