kajet wrote:
What can I say. Good interview - Kristin extracted a nice race report. I wonder how a young Mexican coming to America and announcing he’s there to win (and not, say, to landscape) sounds to the Texan ear 😉
Errr, you could also add in some jokes about making tacos and outrunning border patrol. But it's kinda tacky. Still, no hard feelings as I think the media definitely doesn't do us any favors in how it frames the issues that most people digest.
The assumption of broad racism against Mexicans in Texas is wildly over played. Many Texans are of Mexican descent. Many Texans (or Arizonans, etc) of Mexican descent are deeply concerned about the border issues, precisely because they know some of the issues so well. I have several family members who are 1st and 2nd gen Mexican-American and travel regularly to Mexico and have close connections there still (only mentioned to point out they aren't estranged from their culture) who are upset with many of the border issues. The racism element of that gets invoked and exacerbated to score points and shut down debate usually.
To the extent there are racist Texans, they are usually also jerks to white cyclists in spandex. And to plenty of other white people of various types they don't like. The racism becomes a proxy for them just being dicks in most cases.
But in general back to Ironman across the southwest, it's very common to see a lot of very good Latino athletes coming up to the States. Close travel to a lot of quality races brings a lot of great competitors here.