By now, most of you have seen the viral video of a lawyer going ballistic in a restaurant in Manhattan because people were speaking Spanish. He threatened to call ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) whereupon the manager dared him to do it. The last I heard he was released from his law firm.
This is not an isolated event. You can find dozens and dozens of videos online of irate people ranting and verbally abusing someone because they weren’t speaking English. Or worse yet, their skin color is not lily white (read Hispanic or Muslim).
“Reported hate crimes with racial or ethnic bias jumped the day after President Trump won the 2016 election, from 10 to 27, according to an analysis of FBI hate crime statistics by The Washington Post. There were more reported hate crimes on Nov. 9 than any other day in 2016, and the daily number of such incidents exceeded the level on Election Day for the next 10 days.” – March 23, 2018 The Washington Post
“A study published on Monday by advocacy group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) revealed 300 recorded cases of hate crimes against Muslims in 2017, a rise of 15 percent.” – April 23, 2018 DW.com
Georgia gubernatorial candidate Michael Williams has a “Deportation Bus” painted grey to resemble a prison bus with wire mesh on the windows. He is driving around the state ostensibly to hunt down illegals and deport them.
On the bus’s rear it reads:
“Murderers, rapists, kidnappers, child molestors [sic] and other criminals on board.” Just below, the lettering adds: “Follow me to Mexico.”
Does some of this language sound familiar. When Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president he said this about Mexico,
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best… They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
Recently White House Chief of Staff John Kelly during an interview with NPR that he believes the vast majority of undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border into the US do not assimilate well because they are poorly educated. He added that they are
“overwhelmingly rural people” from countries where “fourth-, fifth-, sixth-grade educations are kind of the norm.”
In defending Kelly, political commentator Tomi Lahren made this claim during an appearance on Fox News,
“You don’t just come into this country with low skills, low education, not understanding the language and come into our country because someone says it makes them feel nice. That’s not what this country is based on, We don’t believe in importing poverty.”
Really? What planet is this woman from?
This canard has been used for over 150 years in this country to denigrate or demonize immigrants.
In response to Lahren’s comment, the next day journalist and genealogist Jennifer Mendelsohn tweeted about Lahren’s comments and shared some telling details about Lahren’s ancestry. Without going into details, Mendelsohn pointed to Lahren’s ancestors not speaking English. She added,
“So why do these people ‘really’ not want these people here? That’s what we need to dig out.”
Dig out!!!! Do you really have to think about it?