Linda Chavez: OK, not all who oppose amnesty are racist

Mighty big of her to acknowledge that, though I suspect the damage has been done. Here's the quasi-apology, from the race-baiter herself:

On May 25, I wrote a column entitled “Latino Fear and Loathing” that has provoked considerable anger and recriminations among my fellow conservatives. In the column I asserted that, “Some people just don’t like Mexicans — or anyone else from south of the border,” and described some of the fears shaping these sentiments: “They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent, and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos are just too different from us ever to become real Americans.” I said that those holding these views constituted less than ten percent of the population — an extrapolation of attitudes on race from several studies done over the years.

But it was a subsequent assertion that caused the most furor: namely that among this ten percent were “a fair number of Republican members of Congress, almost all influential conservative talk radio hosts, some cable news anchors — most prominently, Lou Dobbs — and a handful of public policy ‘experts’ at organizations such as the Center for Immigration Studies, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA, in addition to fringe groups like The Minutemen.”

On reflection, I went too far. I blew off some steam and in the process offended some erstwhile allies. I should have been more careful in my wording and not tarred with such a broad brush. I should have been clearer that not everyone who opposes the Senate bill does so for illegitimate reasons. What I should have said was that those in positions of influence, whether elected leaders or talk-show hosts, have a special responsibility not to inflame racial passions and animosities by appealing to the small minority of Americans who are motivated by bigotry. I should have emphasized that the exploitation of prejudice, even if it is not shared or intended, is a danger to conservatives and the Republican party — and we should explicitly disavow it. But I’m not altogether unhappy I wrote the column, or a subsequent one describing the reaction it provoked. There are only so many times that you can be told to “go back to Mexico” and far worse before your blood starts to boil (and I’m talking about thousands of such responses over the last year). The immigration debate has stirred up some pretty ugly sentiments and conservatives need to be especially careful in this regard. We are, after all, the ones who argue for colorblind policies.
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And one can certainly be concerned about illegal immigration — as I am — without being a racist, nativist, or xenophobe. ...
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In summary, let me reiterate: There are good and decent people who oppose the current immigration bill for reasons that have nothing to do with disliking Mexicans. The legislation was put together in a short time frame and marks a dramatic change in U.S. immigration policy, some of which I’m not entirely comfortable with. And there are plenty of reasons to worry about illegal immigration and the burdens it imposes on communities. If people break the law, they should pay a price — the debate is over what that price should be. And there is no question that border security must be tightened — again the debate is, or should be, over how best to do that. ...

Gee, thanks for throwing us that bone. One wouldn't know that our concerns are legitimate by reading your prior words, or those of your apologists who accuse us of "quacking" to the beat of a bigoted drum.

Basically, it's a Durbinesque apology: I'm sorry if you're offended, not for what I said. Ms. Chavez, you can't just impugn the humanity and decency of your friends, colleagues, and ideological brethren by implying they're racist and expect us to just forget about it. Accusations like that hurt, and while you are busy lecturing us about what you expect from your fellow righties, you may want to heed your own advice and abstain from the race-baiting intellectual bankruptcy that we have come to expect from the other side. Otherwise, you're likely to lose friendships and comity with people that you know (or we thought you knew) by irrationally siding with people you will never know.