Los Angeles Times

Gustavo Arellano: I'm part of the 'Great Replacement.' It's not what believers say it is

Students from Belmont High wave flags and yell from steps of City Hall after they walked out of school and marched through downtown to protest Prop 187..

Twenty-three years ago on a hot August evening, I stood before the Anaheim Union High School District board of trustees. They were about to discuss whether to sue Mexico for $50 million and ask the country for an annual $10 million payment for educating the children of undocumented immigrants.

Children like me.

Board president Harald Martin, a native of Austria and the author of the proposal, blamed us for a supposedly degrading educational system in my hometown. He had even appeared on National Public Radio to compare Latino students to the small, furry critters from the "Star Trek" universe that once overwhelmed the Starship Enterprise.

"They were so cute and fluffy, nice

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