.
Mexico Pres. Vicente Fox
made the controversial comment in May 2005 "to a group of Texas businessmen
meeting in Mexico."
5/15/2005, "Mexican leader criticized for comment on blacks," CNN
"The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday
criticized Mexican President Vicente Fox's comment that Mexican
immigrants to the United States take jobs "that not even blacks want to
do."
Jackson called the remark "a spurious comparison" with "ominous racial overtones."
The
Mexican president's office issued a statement late Saturday disputing
the negative interpretation of his comments, saying Fox has "enormous
respect to minorities whatever their racial, ethnic, or religious origin
may be."
A Mexican official defended Fox later in the day, saying his description was not meant as an insult. "The
president didn't make a declaration in the racist sense; of course
there are those who interpret it in that way," Foreign Relations
Secretary Luis Derbez told a reporter in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
According
to Derbez, Fox was making the point that "...a large quantity of the jobs taken by Mexicans are
jobs that in the U.S. society aren't being filled."...
Fox
made the controversial comment Friday to a group of Texas businessmen
meeting in Mexico. He criticized recent steps the United States has
taken that the Bush administration said were aimed at curbing illegal
immigration....
Speaking
in Spanish, he said, "There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with
dignity, willingness and ability to work, are doing jobs that not even
blacks want to do there in the United States."
A State Department
spokesman who asked not to be named, read CNN a statement saying, "That
level of dialogue doesn't merit comment."
The spokesman also said,
"President Bush's commitment to immigration reform that is rational,
legal, common sense, decent and compassionate is well-documented."
Jackson
said he has worked "for the citizenship rights of immigrants and
Mexican Americans" and wants steps taken to avoid making the United
States "hostile toward immigration policy."
He said Fox's comment
about "blacks" seemed to be about a stereotype. "Most poor Americans are
not black, they're white," he added."...
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