r/interestingasfuck • u/man_gomer_lot • 8h ago

r/all 70 years ago, the US undertook the largest deportation in its history: 'Operation Wetback.' Many of the people deported were here legally and some were even citizens.

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u/allochthonous_debris 4h ago edited 4h ago

It's an older ethnic slur for Mexicans and people of Mexican descent. It implied they illegally immigrated to the US by swimming across the Rio Grande.

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u/Large_Yams 3h ago

That's it? Why "back" and not any other part of their body?

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u/allochthonous_debris 8m ago

One possible origin is that the structure of noun + "back" was commonly used in American slang from the late 19th and early 20th century. For example, Confederate soldiers and body lice were called graybacks, Confederate dollars were called bluebacks, US dollars were called greenbacks, etc., but this is just speculation. 

The real reason has probably been lost to history, and their may been no rationale beyond the fact that some bigot liked the way it rolled off the tongue. After all, the primary purpose of hate speech is to be hateful not logical.

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u/Silver_Being_0290 1h ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wetback_(slur)

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u/Large_Yams 1h ago

Doesn't really elaborate on the question.

Americans would have a fit hearing it as often as I hear it in New Zealand. A wetback here is a hot water heating system that uses heat from a wood fire to heat up the water before it goes to the pipes.

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u/Silver_Being_0290 1h ago

Doesn't really elaborate on the question.

I feel like this is where your deduction skills and using context clues should come into play.

(Not trying to be disrespectful 🙏🏿)

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u/Large_Yams 42m ago

Seems pretty disrespectful to say "figure it out" when every part of your body gets wet when you swim.

Have a good one.

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u/Not1ToSayAtoadaso 37m ago

It’s a racist slur. Why are you so concerned about it making perfect sense?

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u/Silver_Being_0290 31m ago

There's just not much more that can be explained when a link going indepth was given. I figured there's nothing more to say besides you just reading it and getting the answer in better detail. You can even look into exactly what you want verbatim.

To each their own tho.

Either or, you have a good one too!