To say that the past few weeks on Capitol Hill have been anything but insane would be an understatement. The madness all began on Friday, when a war broke out between Nancy Pelosi and ‘The Squad’ (Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Tlaib, Pressley, and friends). The battle, of course, brought about conversations around race and racial discrimination, with Ocasio-Cortez insisting that Pelosi was “singling out newly-elected women of color.” It wasn’t long before things in Washington heated up again around this issue of race and ethnicity.
On Monday, President Donald Trump took to Twitter attacking Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar. He claimed the women “originally came from countries whose government[s] are a complete and total catastrophe.” If that wasn’t enough to make anyone want to willingly leave the country, he tweeted:
“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done; These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”
It is important to note that all but one of the congresswomen Trump referenced were born in the U.S. In fact, Congresswomen Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx, NY, just a few miles away from the hospital President Trump himself was born.
Racist comments indicating we should “go back to where we came from” directed at people of color have a long-standing history in the United States. Trump’s comments are an exact reflection of the racist ideologies plaguing this country’s history and institutions.
The President’s tweets have been criticized for the ill-disguised racist comments that they are. It seems that President Trump didn’t care to confirm his alternative facts since they fit his bigoted narrative that you can’t be a person of color and American at the same time. In response, the Democratic party rallied in defense of the congresswomen, calling out Trump’s blatant disrespect for law makers and overtly racist toxicity.
Trump’s words have not only sparked outrage on the Hill, his comments have also triggered many people of color who — following his election — have felt neglected by the president and the law.
As a woman of color, and a Muslim American, I felt appalled by the President’s inconsiderate tweets. As I am sitting on my morning commute, reading article after article detailing Trump’s racist aggression, I couldn’t help but wonder: “Go back to your country…really President Trump, that’s the best you could come up with?” Not only is Trump racist, he is also an incredibly unoriginal racist.
Racist comments indicating we should “go back to where we came from” directed at people of color have a long-standing history in the United States. Trump’s comments are an exact reflection of the racist ideologies plaguing this country’s history and institutions. And yet, he also forgets that we are a nation of immigrants. We are living on land that was stolen, and we have infested it with our bad government. In that sense, Trump’s tweets were right, all these American congresswomen will go back to their broken U.S government and fix it so that no citizen faces racist remarks again.
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