People's perception of ethnicity is highly variable.
While earning my Master's degree, I sold cars for two years at a good family-owned dealership. Great place to work, with its own share of characters.
One of them was a salesman who was an old cowboy type; he dressed western, had a rolling gait from years on a horse, and was superb in working with farmers and ranchers. We had a number of Iranian students at the university in town, and he referred to them (out of earshot) as "F***'in Mexicans." The details of geography were somewhat lost on ol' Bill.
I did much better working with the Iranian and Asian students, and with university faculty - I understood their mindset better. But I still laugh and shake my head over Bill's terminology. He was only off by a few thousand miles.
