"No one in Trump's Cabinet stood up to this expression of gutter racism, although Vice President J. D. Vance enthusiastically banged on the table. The president's remarks were ostensibly in response to real events-in Minnesota, dozens of members of the Somali diaspora have been implicated in fraud related to social services -but the community does not bear responsibility for the actions of those individuals."
"Similarly, white Americans as a whole are not responsible for Trump largely dismantling the federal government's capacity to fight white-collar crime and corruption, his doling out of pardons for people who donate money or commit crimes on his behalf, or his scandalous profiteering. I don't believe that there is something inherent in white culture that causes Trump to act this way; he is simply a particularly reprehensible human being."
"The next day, at an Oval Office event, Trump again disparaged Somalis, claiming that Somali immigrants have "destroyed our country" and that the Somali American congresswoman Ilhan Omar "should be thrown the hell out of our country." None of the people around him had the courage to ask whom "our" referred to. Given the president's plunging approval ratings, one wonders whether these slurs are yet another attempt to shore up his support through appeals to racism."
President Donald Trump labeled Somali immigrants with dehumanizing language and declared that they were unwanted while senior officials present did not object. Vice President J. D. Vance reacted by banging on the table in apparent support. The remarks followed allegations that some Minnesota Somali residents committed social-services fraud, but the Somali community was not responsible for those individuals' actions. Trump later repeated disparaging claims about Somali immigrants and urged that Representative Ilhan Omar be expelled. The incidents demonstrate appeals to racial animus, a stance that frames legal and policy actions within a racial hierarchy and undermines institutional accountability.
Read at The Atlantic
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]