"The Vietnamese are trying to take over"

Submitted by Zebra24601 on Sun, 09/26/2010 - 21:07

Representative Loretta Sanchez got caught playing the race card last week on a Spanish-language television interview. The Los Angeles Times reports that she said (in Spanish) that "the Vietnamese and the Republicans are--with intensity--trying to take away this seat."

Anti-Asian racism often gets a pass in the mainstream press, so we'll see how big of an issue this becomes in her current race for reelection.

Ooops... the "they don't know Spanish" error

Submitted by night reader on Sun, 09/26/2010 - 23:46.

Way to go Loretta.

She fell victim to that idea that Americans are monolingual and that you can be different "among your own" than you have to be in the public at large.

Just because you say it in Spanish doesn't make it not-racist. LULz.

When you go racist, the only vote you get is the narrow ethnic vote, and you lose all the other votes. After all, she just signaled to all the Vietnamese Democrats in her district that she doesn't necessarily represent them.

This could hurt her. There's some friction between the communities because both have large working class communities that, basically, end up competing against each other for jobs that involve manual labor.

She's going to have to backpedal a bit. Take political action in ways that help to undo the damage. There ain't that much time between now and the elections...

It's going to be tough to

Submitted by RosemeadOne on Mon, 09/27/2010 - 12:11.

It's going to be tough to create a plausible positive spin out of words that are so blatantly racist. I wonder if the district has enough Republicans in it that she will miss those Vietnamese voters that might otherwise have voted for her?

Loretta is the anti-Van

Submitted by night reader on Sat, 10/02/2010 - 11:54.

It seems like the main thing working in her favor is Van Tran. He's got conflicts within the VN voting base.

If they have some debates, and if the press there is having frank discussions about real politics, they can break beyond ethnic bloc voting.

So far I've heard only dissatisfaction with Sanches... and Van Tran. Nothing positive. LOLz.

Also, they're both "carpetbaggers". Sanchez supposedly came down from Pacific Palisades. Van Tran from Sacramento. (I've heard half the politicians out there are like this.)