"To some people, we're all the same."

[babylonsister]

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/04/29/still_on_probation_105329.html

Still on Probation
By Ruben Navarrette


SAN DIEGO -- It's a common case of mistaken identity -- and a running joke among upper middle-class Latinos.

There are many stories, but here's just one. A Mexican-American friend of mine who is a corporate executive was mowing his lawn in an affluent and predominantly white neighborhood. He was unshaven and dressed in work clothes when a passerby complimented him on the landscaping job and asked for a business card. "What's the name of your company?" he asked. My friend smiled and responded: "Sprint."

Welcome to the club. You're not really Latino until you've been mistaken for the valet, the gardener, the nanny, etc. That's the gag. It's good for a laugh.

Yet being profiled by your neighbor is one thing, and being singled out by law enforcement is another. And so no one is amused by what is unfolding in the Grand Canyon state.

snip//

We might be Rhodes scholars, federal judges, governors, FBI agents or Medal of Honor recipients and yet we're just one short phrase away from being put in our place and forced to prove that we belong here. The phrase: "reasonable suspicion."

This law is also a different sort of reality check for everyone else. It clears up a mystery. Many Americans have long been baffled by the fact that Latinos who have the right to be in the United States -- whether they are native-born citizens or here legally -- will often interfere with efforts to harass, round up and remove illegal immigrants.

Some of them want to know: "What's this to you?" Others -- in a tune familiar to American Jews -- accuse the obstructionists of having "divided loyalties." Still others assume it's simply because these Latinos must have "relatives who are illegal."

Now you know the real reason. Look at Arizona. To some people, we're all the same.

Fine. In that case, this isn't some someone else's fight. This is ours. Game on.