Marco Rubio's Dog Whistle

When Donald T. Rump claimed that Barack Obama was not an American citizen, he was blowing a dog whistle, not directly calling the President an N-word in a way that every fool could hear but doing it indirectly in a way that racists could figure out and enjoy. He's doing something similar now to millions of undocumented Mexican workers in the United States, calling them rapists and so forth.

T. Rump is a loser, a mean clown from the world of dubious entertainments, but Sen. Marco Rubio may end up squatting someplace on the Republican national ticket. His recent comments that President Obama has "no class" are his racist dog whistles. As an observation "no class" is as absurd as T. Rump's claim that Obama is not American. It serves the same purpose--it's a silent N-word sent out to win support from right-wing Republican racist populists.

In general the history of Latin countries is less racist than the history of the United States.  Mexico freed its slaves about 35 years before we did. Los Angeles was founded, in large part, by mulato families like the Picos. But the Latino countries founded by Spain began with a Spanish caste system in which black people were at the bottom as slaves. Social prejudices that work against black people linger and can still be used by political manipulators in Florida to their own advantage.