Rep. Don Young of Alaska reminisced on his childhood in Central California on a radio show earlier this week, using the term “wetbacks” to describe the migrant workers who picked tomatoes on the family farm. Young expressed minimal remorse when he was blasted for using the word, stating his belief that it didn’t have a derogatory meaning when he was growing up.
This misstep comes in the wake of the “Growth and Opportunity Project”, a formal report on the GOP that suggests in part that the party become more sensitive to undocumented migrants.