An African-American state lawmaker in South Carolina was under fire for suggesting that “brothers” don't work as hard as Mexicans.

We in L.A., arguably the Latino capital of the United States, know that nobody works as hard as Mexicans. (We're Mexican and we're selling oranges on a 405 on-ramp right now as we blog).

But seriously, here's what state Sen. Robert Ford said:

“… The brothers are going to find ways to take a break. Ever since this country was built, we've had somebody do the work for us.”

He made the remark during a committee debate about Arizona's controversial immigration law.

Well, we don't know about African-Americans being the biggest experts in taking breaks: Ask your local Teamster. (We kid … please don't kill us, Sopranos-looking truck driver).

Mexicans have taking breaks, drinking cheap, syrupy beer and chasing wide-bottomed white women down to a science. Not that we'd know. So there's some stereotyping for you. (How Mexicans can both be lazy and the hardest working people in America is what you call a conundrum. But we're doing the research as we speak).

We think the real fear here is not that Ford has unleashed some age-old assumptions about different ethnicities, but that his presumption would knock black folks from the bottom of the old social totem pole that is America.

Already, most Americans feel Latinos are the group that faces the most discrimination in society.

Poor Sen. Ford. He has both the GOP and the NAACP chastising him for this fateful quote.

You know when you have the right and the left charging at you that the truth just might actually lay somewhere in the middle.

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