this morning on cnn, while discussing what was said at the garden, the interviewee said to look at the policies. that the mass deportations are more worrisome than the insults.
that the plan trump and his 2025 people have are deporting american citizens with undocumented relatives. let that sink in. deporting american citizens.
trump may say x, but you have to follow what he says with how it will get to y and zed.
That’s fair - but are non-Puerto Ricans saying they felt personally insulted by the statement and took it to mean them as well?
Or are other people telling them they should be insulted?
Because that’s kind of the problem. In the context of the “set”, the general reaction has been that it was about Puerto Ricans alone. Telling people they should feel personally insulted because we choose to lump them in together with other groups doesn’t work if they don’t feel it themselves.
Of course, a lot of people realize that they are being lumped together, but those aren’t the ones that need to be reached. And telling them “well, of course they meant all of you together” can itself be taken as insulting.
It’s much easier to play identity politics when you don’t have to care about identity. Maybe not effective or moral but certainly easier.
Mainly I believe because of the specificity of that line among the “jokes”. Generic swipes about fast breeding Latinos and about carving watermelons with Black people, sadly, kind of melt into the “yeah what did you expect from this crowd” noise by now. This, OTOH, got a “that’s a new one” reaction and was boosted because of it happening in NY where there’s a million Puerto Ricans in the state and three Puerto Rican Congressmembers in NYC, spanning seniority from 30 years to 4, including among them high-visibility figure AOC — so it took like a New York minute to have irate reactions from people with media reach blowing up the nets.
Just wanted to chime in about the word “offended.”
GOP responses to people’s reactions to the Klan rally at MSG are often along the lines of, “It’s a joke. Stop being so easily offended.”
Problem is, I’m not offended. I’m terrified. When you “joke” about using the military to handle the enemy within, I’m imagining soldiers beating down my door and hauling me off to a black site for torture. Maybe raping my wife and killing my dogs for good measure.
I’m not Black, but when you joke about watermelons I’m not offended. I’m terrified that you’ll re-enact Jim Crow laws and lynch my neighbors.
Puerto Ricans have been born citizens since before most Americans alive today were born. Insulting them pulls the Klan hood off the “I’m not touching you!” pretense that the MAGAts are objecting to and insulting only illegal immigrants for their illegal immigration.
So it should cause Latinos who lean Trumpist because “we’re here legally and they don’t mean us” to realize the MAGA venom isn’t aimed at illegal immigrants but anyone darker than the MAGA yahoos, up to and including themselves (the [del]Log Cabin Republicans[/del] Trump-leaning Latinos). In other words, the lumping-together is being done by the insulters, not people “telling them they should be insulted.” It doesn’t require sympathy or empathy with other Latino nationalities, just comprehension of words and a sense of self-preservation.
Great, so explain that to the Hispanic voters who don’t feel that way in such a fashion that they don’t take as just as condescending as the other side but in a different way.
Ain’t no feelings involved, and the explanation was in my post: “Puerto Ricans are born American citizens. Trumpists aren’t insulting them because they’re illegal aliens but because they’re brown.”
I get that. And that explains why Puerto Ricans should be angry.
In the context of this thread, that doesn’t adequately explain why other Hispanics should feel the same way. I understand why you believe this to be the case, and I think the explanation makes sense.
But that’s a far cry from why they should personally go with that. That may or may not make sense, but rationality and voting behavior don’t have to be aligned. Clearly, they often aren’t. And telling people they are being irrational and that their opinions are wrong has a bad track record at changing minds or votes.
Don’t wave off Republicans’ comments about Puerto Ricans because you’re not Puerto Rican, or comments about Mexicans because you’re not Mexican. If you look like them and have an accent or surname that’s similar to theirs, you and your family might be rounded up and deported on the same train.
“This Puerto Rican has something to say about the island that I love, where my family is from,” Hostin said frostily. “Puerto Rico is trash? We are Americans, Donald Trump. Americans. We voluntarily serve disproportionately high in the military, while you have bone spurs. And we vote.”
Hostin went through all of the numbers of Puerto Ricans living in key swing states and listed the Puerto Rican celebrities who have come out for Harris, posting to their 345 million collective Instagram followers. Then she delivered this call to arms: “We don’t like what was said about Puerto Rico. And we know how to take the trash out, Donald Trump. Trash that has been collecting since 2016. And that’s you, Donald Trump.”
“And finally, my fellow Puerto Ricans, trash collection day is November 5, 2024.”
Co-host Ana Navarro-Cárdenas addressed the Latino community directly, masterfully walking through a litany of offensive, racist things Trump has said and done over the years …
… the Archbishop of San Juan has entered the fray, writing a letter to Trump that slammed him for his campaign’s transgressions: “Puerto Rico is not a floating island of garbage. Its inhabitants are noble and precious people. You should not insult or denigrate the dignity and character of people. It’s not enough for the campaign to apologize, you should apologize yourself.”
…
Trump of course would never apologize for something he said or did, let alone for something someone else said while at his hate-filled event. But the blurring of Trump and MAGA is notable here as elsewhere, and holding Trump accountable for the actions of the people around him is proving both rhetorically and politically effective.
…
Despite the common narrative that Arab Americans in the swing state of Michigan are all abandoning the Democratic ticket, many of their leaders are currently speaking out against Trump and in favor of Harris. Here’s the highest ranking Arab American official in Wayne County, Michigan’s largest county, voicing support for Harris …
…
Even in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the highest number of Arab Americans in the U.S., civil and business leaders have met to endorse Kamala Harris.
“It’s wild. And these Latinos, they love making babies, too, just know that. They do, they do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country…”
That’s not an insult?
Yep.
Nope, he insulted Puerto Ricans , then Latinos, and Blacks. Yes, there was a line about PR being a floating garbage pit, but also lines about latinos and blacks. Separately.
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
I don’t expect them to listen to any argument however, because if they are considering voting for Trump they are some mix of ignorant, stupid or evil. Nobody not one of those things would support him. So they’ll go ahead and vote for people who want to kill them.
Tis true; dumbass racists can’t be bothered about what flavor of brown one is. All they know is “doesn’t look white”. I got run out of an apartment I was renting by some stupid fuck that got it in his head that I’m Puerto Rican. I mean actually sitting outside his house, yelling at me day and night. Only difference between him and Trump’s ideal enforcers is the lack of an official title. Oh,and a gun.
It doesn’t require sympathy or empathy with other Latino nationalities, just comprehension of words and a sense of self-preservation.