Lemann has been surprised by the strength of the reaction.

Nicholas Lemann: Well I’m like a lot of people. I’ve been very surprised in the last couple years at the enormity of the backlash against immigration . . . illegal immigration, or even just immigration period. That really took me by surprise, as it’s taken Governor ___________ by surprise, and President Bush by surprise, and so on. And I personally think yes, there’s some prejudice in that reaction, and it’s obviously directed primarily at Latinos. So in a way that’s impossible to prove, I think that the Black-White relation is more charged than the Latino-White relation. There’s just . . . There’s a lot going on there, but I can’t sort of scientifically prove that. I think it’s a lot of things. It’s history. It’s mostly history. It’s to some extent just looks based. You know that if you’re White and African-American looks “differenter” than a Latino. But I think it’s mostly historical.

Recorded on: 11/30/07