Friday, November 30, 2007

It’s Not Racism, Honest!

Via Digby, it’s really hard for the anti-immigrant crowd to claim they aren’t racist when they say stuff like this:
“We are where we were with the black folks after the revolutionary war. We can’t send them back and the more we p *** them off the worse it will be in the future. So what do we do. [.... ] I say the governor needs to try to enforce the law and sign the letter of understanding... and at least we can send the troublemakers back. Sure we are being overrun but we are being outpopulated by the blacks also. What is the answer, only time will tell.”

These words of wisdom apparently came in an e-mail from the chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, state Sen. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith. Altes complained that:

[he] has been “in the trenches fighting this thing” but that he and former state Sen. Jim Holt, R-Springdale, were accused of being racists and bigots for their 2005 stance.

Gee, I can’t imagine why.