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Could race be propelling O'Rourke's meteoric rise?

Ruben Navarrette Jr. on

SAN DIEGO -- Robert Francis O'Rourke doesn't claim to be Latino. But the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate goes by "Beto," and he doesn't seem to mind if you think he's Latino.

When The Associated Press covered O'Rourke's recent campaign-kickoff rally in El Paso, the reporter noted that the former congressman "spoke at length in his native Spanish."

Since O'Rourke is a fourth-generation Irish American, the reporter must be talking about the Gaelic dialect of espanol.

Is this cultural appropriation, or just more evidence that the media is clueless about Mexican Americans, their culture and language? Both. The AP has issued a correction.

O'Rourke doesn't do any correcting. When you run for president, you're supposed to tell your story. But the Texas Democrat would rather toss out catnip for the radical left -- open borders, legalized marijuana, Medicare-for-all, etc. -- than talk about his family's journey from the Emerald Isle.

I think about that bit from John Leguizamo, the Colombian American comedian and actor. Hollywood casting directors, he recalls, would tell him: "We don't want a Latino. We want someone who can play Latino."

 

Imagine the opening credits: Starring Eli Wallach as the Mexican bandito Calvera in "The Magnificent Seven."

Meanwhile, there is a real-life Latino vying for the Democratic nomination -- Julian Castro, the former secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Once built up by the media as a "post-racial" rising star in the Democratic Party, the Mexican American can't get on television to save his White House bid, and he's stuck at 1 percent in Iowa polls.

No worries. We have a white male who can play Latino. Now casting Beto O'Rourke as the nation's first Latino president?

Don't act like you haven't seen this movie before. As Bill Clinton taught us in the 1990s through his supposed familiarity with African Americans, white males always get to pick the best roles for themselves.

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