Last week, 52 percent of Florida voters voted to keep an 80-year-old state constitutional amendment on the books that prevents Asian immigrants from owning property in the state. The provision dates back to the early 19oos, when a significant influx of Asian immigrants — especially on the West Coast — prompted California and eight other states to pass similar anti-Asian ownership laws.

The provision has nothing to do with illegal aliens; it’s about institutionalized discrimination against people who don’t look like white Florida Crackers or even black Florida Crackers

In Florida, most of the Asian immigrants were Japanese brought in by none other than the father of Florida exploitation, oil baron Henry Flagler. He brought immigrants from Denmark (hence, the Broward County town of Dania) and Japan (see Yamato Road in Boca Raton) to plant and work pineapple farms whose fruit would be carried north on Flagler’s East Coast Railroad, which otherwise would have dead-headed back after disgorging tourists, land speculators, profiteers and supplies.

Of course, as soon as Flagler discovered that it was cheaper to buy pineapples in Cuba and ship them up the Mississippi River, he abandoned his immigrant farmers in South Florida, who were left to shift for themselves as best they could in what was still largely a wilderness.

So why didn’t Floridians vote to repeal the jingoistic amendment? Partly, it was the wording of the thing:

Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to delete provisions authorizing the Legislature to regulate or prohibit the ownership, inheritance, disposition, and possession of real property by aliens ineligible for citizenship.

Yep, that “aliens ineligible for citizenship” was a killer, conjuring up all kinds of anti-immigration images in the tiny minds of my fellow Floridians. That, and the anti-immigration groups who claimed that the provision as it now stands would prevent terrorist groups from buying property in Florida. I mean, nobody wants a Muslim madrassa or Taliban training facility in their neighborhood, right? And that’s the terrorists’ new strategy — instead of flying airplanes into our buildings, they are going to BUY our buildings ….

Look, people, the provision has nothing to do with illegal aliens; it’s about institutionalized discrimination against people who don’t look like white Florida Crackers or even black Florida Crackers, for that matter. Plus, it’s an embarrassment — Florida is the only state that has not repealed its anti-Asian law. But there is hope: supporters plan to have it back on the 2010 ballot, and maybe, like New Mexico’s repeal of a similar law, the second time around will be the charm.