House passes resolution officially condemning Trump's racist attack on congresswomen

[DavidPT]

He attacked the ethnic heritage of the women. I don't like false accusations, either, but this one is pretty clearly legitimate.

There has to be a better way to define it rather than racist. I have been around racist people before. I have never witnessed Trump acting in the same manner that they do.

 

[Belk]

Would people be whimpering if he had said the same thing to a Russian, a Frenchman, and a couple Scandinavians? You know they wouldn't be. He didn't refer to their ethnicities, at all, but rather their anti-American ideological beliefs.

No, they would not be because those are people from other countries. Telling an American to "Go back to your own country" has a long racist history. He was referring to their ethnicity. Not buying the gaslight.

 

[iluvatar5150]

There has to be a better way to define it rather than racist. I have been around racist people before. I have never witnessed Trump acting in the same manner that they do.

There are times when I also get frustrated with the ambiguity of certain terms when describing bigotry. Anti-Muslim bigotry, for example, isn't "racism".

However, Trump attacked the ethnic heritage of these women - if that's not technically their "race", it's still pretty close to it. AND, I would argue that his charge of their being un-American like only occurred to him and likely only landed with his audience because of their skin color. As was the case with Obama's birth certificate, he would not have made that claim about a white person and his audience wouldn't have been so receptive to it had he done so. This incident falls well into "racism" territory whether or not Trump even realizes it.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

But I don't like Trump to begin with, yet a major pet peeve of mine is when someone is falsely accusing someone of something they did not do. And that's exactly what they are doing with Trump, falsely accusing him of being racist.

I don't like when people falsely accuse anyone, including Trump. But Trump did something blatantly racist and people are attacking him using his own words/action as their proof. What he said is indefensible. It's not just a blind accusation, his own words are on record and are clearly racist.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

There are times when I also get frustrated with the ambiguity of certain terms when describing bigotry. Anti-Muslim bigotry, for example, isn't "racism".

However, Trump attacked the ethnic heritage of these women - if that's not technically their "race", it's still pretty close to it. AND, I would argue that his charge of their being un-American like only occurred to him and likely only landed with his audience because of their skin color. As was the case with Obama's birth certificate, he would not have made that claim about a white person and his audience wouldn't have been so receptive to it had he done so. This incident falls well into "racism" territory whether or not Trump even realizes it.

But it is racist/racial because he said it about people who are not white but of different races. Pressley and Omar are black, AOC is Puerto Rican which is native American ancestry, and Tlaib is Arab which is semitic. So there is a strong racist element in his attack. Not one of them is "white", racially speaking. They don't all share the same ethnic heritage but they do share the fact that they are racially not white.

 

[Tom 1]

There’s a long and interesting take on the issue of Trump’s racism from Kellyanne Conway’s husband: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...3c0bd4-a740-11e9-9214-246e594de5d5_story.html

 

[Chesterton]

‘Get back to where you came from’ has been a typical racist trope for decades. It’s hardly a phrase you can use without that link being made.

Well sure. That's why it was a great choice of words. Accomplished just what he wanted and more.

 

[DavidPT]

‘Get back to where you came from’ has been a typical racist trope for decades. It’s hardly a phrase you can use without that link being made.

When I was a kid growing up in a small town, sometimes some of the bigger kids who lived blocks away would ride their bikes into our neighborhood, thus somewhat terrorizing us younger kids at the time. It wasn't uncommon for them to be told to go back to where they came from. Nothing racist about it whatsoever. Not only were they white like we were, they were all born in the same town as we were as well. Yet you indicated---It’s hardly a phrase you can use without that link being made. If that is always true it should be true in this case as well.

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

It's amazing how many traitors have been elected to office lately.
M-Bob

Yes , when someone tell truth about Trump. They're automating betraid. By Trumps supporters.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

There has to be a better way to define it rather than racist. I have been around racist people before. I have never witnessed Trump acting in the same manner that they do.

It's amazing how many traitors have been elected to office lately.
M-Bob

What traitors? If they're traitors then why aren't they being taken to court? Treason is a serious offense and punished severely.

Could it be that they're not really traitors and you're just using that term to disparage people you disagree with? That sounds more like it.

Personally, I see most "patriots" as the real traitors.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Fun facts from the EEOC:

Immigrants' Employment Rights Under Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws

Harassment Based on National Origin

• Ethnic slurs and other verbal or physical conduct because of nationality are illegal if they are severe or pervasive and create an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment, interfere with work performance, or negatively affect job opportunities. Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person's foreign accent or comments like, "Go back to where you came from, " whether made by supervisors or by co-workers.

 

[ArmenianJohn]

Fun facts from the EEOC:

Immigrants' Employment Rights Under Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws

Harassment Based on National Origin

• Ethnic slurs and other verbal or physical conduct because of nationality are illegal if they are severe or pervasive and create an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment, interfere with work performance, or negatively affect job opportunities. Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person's foreign accent or comments like, "Go back to where you came from, " whether made by supervisors or by co-workers.

This is great, thanks for sharing it, essentialsaltes.

Based on this, if someone in my company said this to a co-worker, it would be grounds for immediate termination.

Aren't the president and congresspeople co-workers? Are they above the law?

 

[Belk]

When I was a kid growing up in a small town, sometimes some of the bigger kids who lived blocks away would ride their bikes into our neighborhood, thus somewhat terrorizing us younger kids at the time. It wasn't uncommon for them to be told to go back to where they came from. Nothing racist about it whatsoever. Not only were they white like we were, they were all born in the same town as we were as well. Yet you indicated---It’s hardly a phrase you can use without that link being made. If that is always true it should be true in this case as well.

Are you kidding us with this claptrap?

 

[essentialsaltes]

Based on this, if someone in my company said this to a co-worker, it would be grounds for immediate termination.

Well... if it was part of severe or pervasive harassment. It's not likely a firing after a single episode.

Of course, if one were to continue tweeting and saying much the same thing, and getting other coworkers to say similar things... that would probably qualify as pervasive harassment and be illegal.

 

[DavidPT]

Are you kidding us with this claptrap?

Didn't what I just submit debunk that is has to be meaning racial every time? That doesn't mean it can't be racial at times. But every single time though?

 

[iluvatar5150]

Aren't the president and congresspeople co-workers? Are they above the law?

No, they're not co-workers. Civil rights laws don't cover elected officials. And yes, the POTUS is above the law in many ways.

 

[Belk]

Didn't what I just submit debunk that is has to be meaning racial every time? That doesn't mean it can't be racial at times. But every single time though?

It is a typical racist trope. Some kids using similar phrasing does not change that.

 

[eleos1954]

Well, most folks don't require an explanation to understand how the tweets are of course racist.

Except they are being held at detention centers not concentration camps.

Definition of DETENTION CENTER

detention center
noun
Definition of detention center


1: a place where people who have entered a country illegally are kept for a period of time

2: a place where people who have committed crimes are kept as punishmentShe spent several months in a detention center for women.a juvenile detention center

 

[variant]

He didn't "choose" them. They were the ones spouting off. They chose to do it; he responded (childishly, but it wasn't racial in intent).

You don't seem to be grasping the situation and what the man actually said.

Trump regularly disagrees and even chastised people who disagree with him. He only told those four women of color to go back where they came from. He has a choice of what to say and who to say it to, and he meant every bit of this attack and it's racism.

The message is loud and clear "those people" don't belong in this country criticizing it. He couldn't have even have said it about everyone, just groups of people who come from countries he personally doesn't like or thinks are poorly run.

The people he targeted are in fact actually Americans in every way by the way, they have every right to criticize anyone they want. Telling them to shut up and go back where they came from is an explicitly racist thing to say.

He even had had less harsh criticism for notable sex trafficker Epstein earlier this month.

 

[RestoreTheJoy]

The more I think about it, though I of course could be wrong, so just a theory then, but maybe it was a setup from the get go, and that Trump took the bait. They already had a pretty good idea how he might respond, and that no matter how he might respond, twist into something racially motivated, regardless. IOW he could have responded in a number of ways. Then simply twist that into something racially motivated no matter how he responded. One thing that they knew they could count on was that Trump was going to respond in some manner or another, and that that was 100% already in the bag.

Yes. Someone should really take over his Twitter account. He simply does not possess the cool head required to share appropriate content and not his every thought.