The Many Brown Ones

Megan McArdle is befuddled by the illegal immigration debate:

There are a shocking number of purportedly educated people who think that Mexican immigration is a new, more dangerous phase of American history because, well, there are so many of them! And they don't speak English! You can travel for an hour through their neighbourhoods without hearing anything but Spanish! ...

I can only think of one group that has managed to ruthlessly prevent assimilation, passing their strange religious customs, their language, and their clothes on generation after generation . . . a group that refuses to serve in the military, barely pays taxes, and frequently pulls its children out of school after eighth grade to keep them from getting Americanised. Not only that, but they have dominated their local area with their funny customs for years, pushing their unAmerican agenda on their neighbours.

That group is, of course, the Amish, and many of the same people complaining that Mexicans won't assimilate flock to Lancaster to take pictures of women in funny hats vending sticky-sweet food and overpriced handwork. Can someone explain this in terms that don't devolve into "But the Mexicans are brown"?

Can someone explain this in terms that don't devolve into "But the Mexicans are brown"?

Ask Patrick Buchanan. Dare you.