Is Mexifornia a Pejorative Term?

The terms Mexifornia, Mexizona, Mexas, Mexichusetts and even Mexico Norte, Amexico, or Meximerica have been coined to describe the trends apparent in the U.S. demographics due to immigration, legal and illegal, and differences in fertility rates. These terms are not precisely accurate because second generation Mexicans, if born in the U.S., are in fact Americans under the 14^th amendment, regardless of what they might otherwise call themselves. A more general term in the case of California might be Hispanifornia which would include all those living in California of Hispanic extraction. Are these terms pejorative and racist or merely factual. Do they reflect the actual and undeniable trend toward more Hispanic citizens everywhere across the nation?

The ruckus caused by the use of terms “Hymietown” and “Chocolate City” in the past has been used in an attempt to prove that Mexifornia is a pejorative term. Politically-correct folks would be quick to agree. However, one should look a little bit deeper at the context in which each of these terms has been used. Given the context in which Hymietown was used by Jesse Jackson, one would probably have to agree that it was a pejorative term. Jessie Jackson later apologized for using it. Nevertheless, we have long referred to ethnic enclaves one way or another, for examples: Chinatowns in San Francisco and other cities, Little Havana in Miami and Little Kabul in Fremont, California and Little Israel which is used to refer to any area in a city which has a relatively dense population of persons of Jewish descent, but not necessarily to the utter exclusion of other races, creeds and denominations. In former times, these enclaves of Jewishness were called 'Ghettos', although the term ghetto is now more commonly associated with areas populated by lower-class African American communities. A good example of a Little Israel would be the Sarcelles district in Paris, France or Kew Garden Hills, Queens, New York. Synonyms for Little Israel are Little Tel Aviv, Little Jerusalem, or Hymietown Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday apologized for urging residents to rebuild a "chocolate New Orleans" and saying, "You can't have New Orleans no other way. I'm really sorry that some people took that they way they did, and that was not my intention," the mayor said. "I say everybody's welcome." Nagin added that he never should have used the term "chocolate." This is not the kind of mistake a politician usually makes although there are certainly other examples such as former Senator Allen of Virginia use of the term Macaca to refer to a Democrat ringer in a campaign crowd. It seems to me that New Orleans is a chocolate city by and large. So why not recognize that fact. As long as the context does not denigrate other residents of a different ethnicity, I see no harm in it. Perhaps he could have used a little more context to explain what he meant. Apparently a liberal view of off-the-cuff political gaffs is not shared by many. At a campaign rally in southwest Virginia, Senator Allen repeatedly called a volunteer for Democrat James Webb "macaca." During the speech in Breaks, near the Kentucky border, Allen began by saying that he was "going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas" and then pointed at S.R. Sidarth in the crowd. "This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, macaca, or whatever his name is. He's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great," Allen said, as his supporters began to laugh. After saying that Webb was raising money in California with a "bunch of Hollywood movie moguls," Allen said, "Let's give a welcome to macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." Allen then began talking about the "war on terror." Critics claimed that the word is a European slur of people from North Africa, of which Allen might have been aware, since his Mother is French Tunisian. Indeed, that is not implausible. There are problems, however, that are worth mentioning: (1) Senator Allen said "macaca", but the European slur is Macaque. Aside from being a rather obscure slur, the words are pronounced differently. (2) The "Macaque" slur means "a Negro (originally) or a person of North-African origin". S.R. Sidarth neither looks nor is African — he is Indian, against whom the Macaque slur is not intended. Which is it, is Allen familiar with the slur or not? "It doesn’t make much sense that Allen knowingly dropped an ethnic slur against the person videotaping him for his opponent." Other critics claimed that Allen's statement "Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia!" was a remark about Sidarth looking 'foreign', when he was actually "born and raised in Virginia". This criticism depends an out-of-context read of the statement. Allen was specifically contrasting the "Beltway" and "Hollywood" crowd with the "real world" of Virginia and the rest of America that exists outside the Beltway. As with Hillary Clinton's "[Ghandi] ran a gas station down in St. Louis", or Ted Kennedy's Barrack "Osama bin...Osama...Obama" moments, this is almost certainly more of a mild mistake, rather than a scandal from which anyone should draw personal inferences.