At a recent Hispanic Student Union event, Nevada Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle made the outrageous remark that some of the Hispanic students “look more Asian”.
Angle then followed with the bizarre assertion that she has been labelled “the first Asian legislator in our Nevada State Assembly.”
Okay, first of all, it is troublesome for Angle to deny the racial identities of the people in the audience — she questioned if they were truly Latino based on their “Asiatic” appearance — according to her personal ideas of racial appearance. She basically asserts that racial identification is based upon whether or not people fit into tight, neat little boxes of physical appearance, and that Latinos who “look Asian” aren’t really Latinos at all.
Never mind the question of what “looks Asian” even really means.
Further confusing the point, an Angle spokesperson “clarified” that Angle was actually trying to make the opposite argument: that we can’t judge people’s races based on their outward appearance. Telling Politico, an Angle spokesman said:
Angle spokesman Jarrod Agen explained to POLITICO that “Sharron is making the point that this country is a melting pot and you cannot judge people based on stereotypes or the way they look.”
How we can reconcile that explanation with Angle’s original quote — that some of the audience “look more Asian” to her — is simply beyond me.
Then, we get to the weird statement about her being the first Asian legislator in the Nevada State Assembly. What? Who? What? Angle’s spokesman blames this on an unnamed reporter.
In reference to Angle’s claim that she has been confused as being of Asian decent, Agen said that “when she was in the legislature, a reporter mistakenly referred to Sharron as being of Asian descent. Again, making the point to the students that you can’t judge people based on first glance.”
It’s time to dredge that reporter up, because I think that this is a complete smokescreen — a convenient, unverifiable lie that is designed to spin — poorly — a bad gaffe. Why? Because no reporter, in their right mind, would ask about a politician’s heritage prior to fact-checking their question, lest they look like a total fool. And since there’s no reason to think Sharron Angle is the first Asian anything, we’re either talking about a very bad reporter, or a bald-faced lie.
And certainly, the other point that Angle’s spokesman is trying to make — that the reporter thought Angle was Asian based on her appearance — is just plain absurd.
