The subtle racism of wrong expectations

I am going to make a bold statement. Racism is alive and well in this country. Not the hanging from a tree kind of racism, but the racism of identity. It shows itself most clearly in the anti immigration debate.
It happens to me every few years, someone mistakes me for a latino man. It of course doesn't bother me that people don't know where I am from. What does bother me is how I am treated by the person making the mistake. It's not that I am treated rudely when it happens, but that there are assumptions that are made about on group or another that are just plain racist.
The thinking goes, that person is brown he must be a low wage worker. There is no reason to think that way. I don't care that someone thinks I am have a bad job, it bothers me because that assumption is made because they think I am a Mexican.
It's true tat Mr. Salvadore does a great job cleaning the house, but is because he is a great house cleaner,not becuase he is from south of the border.
I think it was Jesus (or George Bush, I get them confused) who coined the term "the subtle racism of low expectations. Well my expectation is that we treat all the people who come this country like the productive members of our society that they are (except Samoans, they really are lazy).

Dashed off on a wireless device