“Wetback” As An Ironic Term…Or Not

By Daniel Cubias, Being Latino

There’s a new horrifying sign that America is on the decline.

I’m not talking about the chaotic state of our politics, or the struggling economy, or even the fact that half of usrefuse to acknowledge basic scientific facts. I’m referring to the recent implication that white conservative guys can’t casually throw around racial slurs anymore. Truly, it’s a sign of the apocalypse. At least that’s what Jay Nordlinger, senior editor of the National Review, believes.

Recently, he wrote the following sentence about Ronald Reagan:

“He was raising taxes, spending like crazy, welcoming wetbacks, pursuing arms control.”

In that list of otherwise innocuous terms, you probably noticed the word “wetback.” It’s rather hard to miss.

Nordlinger insists he wasn’t slurring Latinos. In asubsequent post, he said that he was simply “reflecting a certain mentality.” In other words, he was being ironic.

Now at the very least, this is yet another case of somebody in a comfortable position of power embracing racist terminology and then saying, “Hey, I wasn’t serious. I’m down with the minorities.”

But that predictable, pathetic excuse wasn’t enough for Nordlinger, who added that his clarification was no apology. Indeed, he wrote that his explanation was “for the benefit of the dim” and that his critics should “Get a frickin’ life.”

Nordlinger summarized his viewpoint by writing, “If people wet their pants on seeing the word ‘wetback,’ this country is as far gone as the most pessimistic and alarmist people say it is.”

Yes, what kind of nation do we live in when upper-class white men can’t pepper their comments with racial insults? It’s pandemonium.

Still, one could argue that Nordlinger was doing his writerly duty by provoking a response. In doing so, however, he obliterated the chief goal of writing, which is effective communication. Who knows what his main point was? Something about Reagan or Roberts, I think.

And if he’s really determined to “reflect certain mentalities,” let’s see his next article use the N-word for blacks and the F-word for gays. If, for some unfathomable reason, he wouldn’t dream of doing so, there’s still good news for all you fans of irony: slamming Hispanics remains a-ok.

Of course, I would ask Nordlinger if he still wonders why the Republican Party has trouble attracting Latinos.It’s hard to deflect the image of your party as a bunch of racists if you’re using any provocation — or in this case, no provocation — to throw in a slur.

After all, he wasn’t writing about Latinos or immigration. He had to go out of his way to drag Hispanics into the conversation, and when he did so, the first and only word he went for was “wetback.” There are no other references to Latinos or Latino issues. Evidently, “wetback” covers it.

In essence, a conservative has slurred Hispanics and then gotten uber-defensive and arrogant when people asked for an explanation, invoking the very fate of the country in his tirade.

Yes, that GOP Latino outreach is going well.

This article was first published in Being Latino.

Daniel Cubias is a writer based in Los Angeles. In addition to Being Latino, his work can be found in such publications as the Huffington Post, Change.org, Aqui magazine, and his website, the Hispanic Fanatic. In addition, he has been published in many literary journals and won the occasional writing contest.