# WTF? Bill O'Reilly just called Mexicans "wetbacks!"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [February 7, 2003, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370 "2003-02-07T03:06:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/1 "2003-02-07T03:06:23Z")
So I was surfing around tonight and I came across resident Fox News demagogue Bill O’Reilly interviewing some politician about the drug traffic from Mexico. O’Reilly, as usual, was advocating total warfare on Mexicans coming over the border and calling for the (illegal) use of the military to try to stop drug smugglers. I’ve heard his kill-all-the-Mexicans rant before, and I was about to change the channel when this little gem came out of his mouth:
“Well, the Mexican wetbacks…or mules, or whatever you want to call them…”
Wetbacks? WETBACKS?
I knew O’Reilly was an ass, but I didn’t know he was such an _ignorant_ ass. He didn’t seem to have any idea that he had said anything objectionable.
Have I slipped into an alternate universe where the term “wetback” is no longer pejorative and racist?
Fuck you, O’Reilly, once again you have proven yourself to be television’s foremost ass-monkey!
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### Author:  [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/2 "2003-02-07T03:13:58Z")
Yes, I caught that as well. Couldn’t believe my ears. Sent him an e-mail, which hopefully will be one of many thousands to berate the prick.
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### Author:  [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/3 "2003-02-07T03:15:27Z")
Ah boy. This even tops Brit Hume’s blowjob reference.
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### Author:  [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/4 "2003-02-07T03:17:03Z")
Well, the term “wetback” refers specifically to illegal immigrants who get “wet backs” in the process of crossing the Rio Grande so as to enter the US undetected. (Isn’t that right?)
So, as a matter of semantics, he was accurate. (Not that that’s OK.)
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### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/5 "2003-02-07T03:24:11Z")
Well, as a matter of semantics, Ian Thorpe’s a wetback.
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### Author:  [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/6 "2003-02-07T03:25:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Joe K \*
> \*\*Ah boy. This even tops Brit Hume’s blowjob reference. \*\*
I meant Shepard Smith. Sorry. And I fired off an e-mail as well.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/7 "2003-02-07T03:30:23Z")
[quote]
_Troy McClure SF_
A lot of racial pejoratives had prosaic origins. “wop” was an acronym for “without papers.” "Kike"is from the Yiddish word “keikl” which means circle. Jews had their papers marked with a circle (supposedly to represent a Star of David) at Ellis island.
That doesn’t make these terms acceptable (as you noted yourself).
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/8 "2003-02-07T03:31:37Z")
I sent an email too. I hope he gets deluged.
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### Author:  [@leander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leander)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/9 "2003-02-07T03:32:40Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Troy McClure SF \*
> \*\*Well, the term “wetback” refers specifically to illegal immigrants who get “wet backs” in the process of crossing the Rio Grande so as to enter the US undetected. (Isn’t that right?)
>
> So, as a matter of semantics, he was accurate. (Not that that’s OK.) \*\*
**Troy** , it is a slur. A nasty, derogatory, racist comment.
There are many examples of slurs that are “technically correct”; that does not make them any less offensive.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/10 "2003-02-07T03:33:51Z")
I heard that Without Papers thing is an urban legend. Not that it really matters.
Hell, “Nigger” was just a mispronounciation of “negro”, which is the Spanish word for black, but that doesn’t make THAT okay.
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### Author:  [@Azael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azael)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/11 "2003-02-07T03:51:58Z")
I’m afraid Bill is going to slammed for this…
Maybe if we are lucky he will deign to (not quite of course) apologise in his uniquely snide and smarmy way.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/12 "2003-02-07T03:58:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Guinastasia_
> heard that Without Papers thing is an urban legend. Not that it really matters.
I knew I should have Snopesed that little tidbit before I posted it. You are correct, of course. According to [word-detective.com](http://www.word-detective.com/052699.html) the acronym story is bullshit.
> [@](#):
>
> “Wop” (in the variant form “wap”) as derogatory slang for an Italian or Italian-American first appeared in New York around 1912, and, far from being an English acronym, probably actually comes from an Italian word. In the Neapolitan dialect, a “guappo” is a swaggering ruffian, hoodlum or street tough. If “guappo” sounds like a cool profession, it’s worth noting that the root of “guappo” was most likely the Latin “vappa,” meaning wine that had gone sour or, figuratively, a useless person. In any case, by about 1914, the spelling “wop” had become standard.
The [“keikl”](http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/11-Miscellaneous/section-14.html) thing seems to hold up though.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/13 "2003-02-07T04:01:07Z")
Comrade **Diogenes** :
We have dicussed this before. When you post such obviously false accusations about a leading and well-respected pundit, you open yourself and the Central Committee to…just a second…what…_what!!_…are you _shitting_ me!..
Burn this message before reading. Carry on.
Commissar elucidator.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/14 "2003-02-07T04:08:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sublight \*
> \*\*Well, as a matter of semantics, Ian Thorpe’s a wetback. \*\*
Sorry, who’s Ian Thorpe?
And would Col. Tom Parker have qualified as a wetback? One presumes he crossed _some_ significant amount of water to arrive here.
😃
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### Author:  [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/15 "2003-02-07T04:15:57Z")
He’s an Aussie swimmer. Wet. Get it?
Illegal Immigrants. Mules. Drug Runners. Traffickers. Better?
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/16 "2003-02-07T04:16:00Z")
Ian Thorpe is a phenomenal young Australian swimmer. Although freestyle is his specialty, he is very good at the backstroke as well.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/17 "2003-02-07T04:28:23Z")
I think we’re going to get a look at Bill O’Reilly’s backstroke tomorrow. 😉
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### Author:  [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/18 "2003-02-07T04:44:17Z")
I seriously doubt he is going to get slammed on this. He says “wetbacks” every single time he talks about the issue of illegal immigration, and it hasn’t been an issue, yet.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/19 "2003-02-07T04:48:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> _Cessandra_
> I seriously doubt he is going to get slammed on this. He says “wetbacks” every single time he talks about the issue of illegal immigration, and it hasn’t been an issue, yet.
Are you sure about this? I’ve heard a lot O’Reilly’s rants about the border, but I’ve never actually heard the word “wetback” before.
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### Author:  [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2003, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-bill-oreilly-just-called-mexicans-wetbacks/153370/20 "2003-02-07T04:50:12Z")
I watch him every night. I’ve heard it several times.
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