New Mexico's voters

November 7, 2002 8:11 PM

New Mexico's voters decided against an amendment that would remove language in the state constitution prohibiting Asian immigrants from owning land [scroll down]. Florida is the only other state now with such a clause. Surprising that they would keep such laws around...
Tangentially, do all Asians really look the same? And would a high score be a good or bad thing?
posted by casarkos (17 comments total)

Um...please disregard my last sentence above; didn't realize preview posts whatever's in the gray box instead of what's in the preview field. I plead newbieness.
posted by casarkos at 8:14 PM on November 7, 2002

Oddly enough, "idiots" are still prohibited from voting in New Mexico as well, by a vote of 56% to 44% (also from casarkos' first link above). Maybe they should think twice about that one as well; the idiots might have voted differently.

casarkos, to do a "more inside" (which I assume you were going for), you have to actually type that as part of your main post. Just make sure you have whatever will be "inside" as the first comment to your link ready to go, preferably saved as a textfile somewhere, so you can quickly get it in as the first comment to your own post.
posted by yhbc at 8:25 PM on November 7, 2002

This is riveting :

posted by four panels at 9:03 PM on November 7, 2002

Woohoo!

Right on with banning idiots and insane persons, though.

(btw, this applies to people ineligible to become citizens. As Asians are eligable to become citizens this doesn't actually apply to them anymore...)
posted by delmoi at 9:26 PM on November 7, 2002

I scored 8/18 on the asian facial test: but would i have scored better if it had been a test distinguishing between Scots/Irish/Welsh? or Swede/Dane/Finn?

I am not sure about the test: if i cannot distinguish between some races, thats progress - no?

BTW, my chinese friend in Hong Kong scored 7/18 - 1 less than i got. What on earth does that tell us?
posted by dash_slot- at 10:04 PM on November 7, 2002

It tells us that a lot of racial/national physical distinctions are totally arbitrary, and incorrect a lot of the time. Of course there are a lot of traits common to an area, especially a semi-isolated area such as an island nation, but as time goes on, they become more and more diluted. Hopefully, in time, all asian people will look the same. And so on.

Of course, I've never been a huge fan of the whole "country" thing, anyway, so.
posted by majcher at 11:13 PM on November 7, 2002

I only got 5, and I see Japanese, Koreans and Chinese on a daily basis. There are a few "typical" types of faces that can be identified, but most people don't have those. Seeing just the mugshot makes it a little harder, because Chinese women *tend* to be longer in the legs and Japanese in the trunk, so that's one clue, but mostly you just can't tell.
posted by planetkyoto at 2:02 AM on November 8, 2002

Chinese women *tend* to be longer in the legs and Japanese in the trunk, so that's one clue, but mostly you just can't tell.

How about Koreans? I can tell, and here's how: There are definite trends, but no absolute. Facial features are much easier, and mannerisms are a dead giveaway.
posted by hama7 at 2:10 AM on November 8, 2002

Way back before most posters here were born, I was in Korea and could spot with ease chinese, Japanes, and Koreanss. I imagine that I would have a difficult time now. But on the other hand, in the dark etc etc
posted by Postroad at 2:52 AM on November 8, 2002

I'm not so sure, however, that the first link provides an adequate foundation for the supposed discrimination against Asian landowners. One line that says "Asian"?

I feel like I just ate air.

The second link might have been better on its own.
posted by hama7 at 2:53 AM on November 8, 2002

I got 9, so I'm "ok." My wife is J, and she's quite a bit worse than me correctly guessing C, J, or K with people around LA. I think it helps a lot to look at facial expressions or ways of doing hair or makeup. Just looking at shapes doesn't work so well for me.
posted by shoos at 4:38 AM on November 8, 2002

I feel like I just ate air.

My mistake. Two or three lines which include the word "Asian".

I still feel like: "I feel like I just ate air."
posted by hama7 at 4:44 AM on November 8, 2002

Uh, four panels, you forgot one.
posted by yerfatma at 5:03 AM on November 8, 2002

Why hasn't anyone pointed out that, despite the language of the NM constitution, it is perfectly legal for anyone of any foreign nationality to own land in New Mexico? And belive me, plenty of "idiots" voted in the last election. The problem with the recent proposals was that it costs money to make the necessary changes and a total constitutional delegation for overhaul is what is really needed, not piece-meal bandages.

But intelligent conversations aren't really Metafilter's area I suppose.
posted by Qubit at 7:00 AM on November 8, 2002

I scored 11 out of 18... not too bad, probably just slightly worse than I'd do with the European nationalities. Some of these were rather tough for me, though. I am reasonably decent at telling Japanese people from Koreans (I am a student of Japanese), but the inclusion of Chinese in the test made it harder for me, since I don't have much experience with Chinese people.

Which I suppose means I ought to make some Chinese friends ^__^

As for actual on-topicness... I'm in New Mexico, and I voted to remove both sets of language. This said, Qubit is right, most people who voted against did so because it seems wasteful to spend money just to remove archaic language that isn't even legally valid anymore. It's not as if everyone was taking a brave stand to speak out against idiots or Asians...

Also, keep in mind that the ballots did not say what language was to be removed (they said something generic like, "to remove a prohibition on certain people's right to vote" and "to remove outdated language from..."). The actual wording of the bills were pretty widely made fun of in the media, but they didn't mention idiots or Asians on the ballot, so a lot of people probably just skimmed it and voted no on general no-money-for-trivialities principle. We're a poor state, and a lot of people see the state government as being wasteful of what little we do have.
posted by vorfeed at 12:56 PM on November 8, 2002

Having been exposed to all three nationalities in that test quite a bit (my wife is Japanese, my best man is Korean, and I grew up spending much time in textile factories filled with Chinese and Vietnamese workers), I think I am pretty good at guessing in real life (though by no means perfect).

But that test took away a lot of the clues I use. I got 9 out of 18.
posted by obfusciatrist at 1:34 PM on November 8, 2002

The newspaper website has a unique Y2K bug. The date at the top of the right-hand column says November 8, 3902!
posted by rschram at 2:31 PM on November 8, 2002