{"id":32529,"date":"2024-09-22T11:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T16:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=32529"},"modified":"2024-09-22T22:05:10","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T03:05:10","slug":"the-guardian-view-on-trumps-attacks-on-migrants-smirking-racism-is-no-less-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=32529","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian view on Trump\u2019s attacks on migrants: smirking racism is no less dangerous"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There is a humanitarian crisis involving Haitians and, despite JD Vance\u2019s lies, it isn\u2019t in Ohio. It\u2019s in Haiti itself, where violence has reached terrifying levels<\/a>. Five children a week are killed and injured and almost 5 million people \u2013 about half the population \u2013 face acute hunger<\/a>. Little wonder families flee. Most of the 15,000 Haitian immigrants in the town of Springfield are in the US through the temporary protected status (TPS) granted to them because of the turmoil in their own country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now they face fresh danger<\/a> thanks to the vicious and baseless lies of Donald Trump\u2019s campaign. In his debate with Kamala Harris, Mr Trump declared<\/a> that \u201cIn Springfield, they\u2019re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They\u2019re eating the cats.\u201d He had picked up on his running mate Mr Vance\u2019s slanders on X that \u201cpets [have been] abducted and eaten by people who shouldn\u2019t be in this country\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were claims first spread by far-right groups and neo-Nazis<\/a>. Promoting them had predictable results. Hospitals, schools and government buildings have been forced to close after bomb threats<\/a>. The town as a whole has been endangered, though of course the Haitian population \u2013 or those who might be mistaken for them \u2013 are most at risk. Some say they are living in constant fear, and are too scared to leave their homes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman who first aired the pet-eating slurs has admitted they are baseless<\/a>. The city\u2019s Republican mayor, Rob Rue, has stressed that \u201cyour pets are safe\u201d. Ohio\u2019s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, has dismissed the claims. A grieving father, Nathan Clark, asked Mr Trump and others to stop exploiting his 11-year-old child\u2019s death<\/a> in a bus crash involving a Haitian immigrant to stoke hatred in the town. The lies have led to an emergency order<\/a> being issued in Springfield. When Mr Trump said he was planning a visit there, Mr Rue<\/a>, backed by Mr DeWine, said it would be better if he stayed away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Trump and Mr Vance continue to lie<\/a> because it allows them to focus, in a hateful way, on immigration. The Republican vice-presidential nominee openly admits as much<\/a>. The former president has already called migrants who enter the US illegally \u201canimals\u201d and \u201cnot human\u201d, and accused them of \u201cpoisoning the [country\u2019s] blood\u201d. The claim about pets taps into old tropes about \u201csavagery\u201d, the threat of the sinister outsider, and associating foreigners with \u201cweird\u201d eating habits<\/a>, evoking not only loathing but disgust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current administration is not beyond criticism when it comes to Haiti \u2013 despite the TPS measures, it has continued to deport some Haitians<\/a>. But that\u2019s a world away from this cynical fomentation of hatred. As Joe Biden put it last week<\/a>: \u201cWe don\u2019t demonise immigrants. We don\u2019t single them out for attacks. We don\u2019t believe they\u2019re poisoning the blood of the country. We\u2019re a nation of immigrants, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re so damn strong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing of the Trump presidency\u2019s cruelties, the author Adam Serwer observed that \u201cthe cruelty\u2002is the point\u201d<\/a> and that \u201ctheir shared laughter at the suffering of others is an adhesive that binds them to one another, and to Trump\u201d. Now Arizona Republicans run LoLtastic \u201cEAT LESS KITTENS\u201d hate posters<\/a> and Mr Vance instructs his supporters to \u201cKeep the cat memes flowing\u201d. Smirking racism is no less lethal. Haitians in Ohio have not been singled out because they are a threat, but because the far right knows they are an easy target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a humanitarian crisis involving Haitians and, despite JD Vance\u2019s lies, it isn\u2019t in Ohio. It\u2019s in Haiti itself, where violence has reached terrifying levels. Five children a week are killed and injured and almost 5 million people \u2013 about half the population \u2013 face acute hunger. Little wonder families flee. Most of the 15,000 Haitian immigrants […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1925,30552,1214,1842,1230],"class_list":["post-32529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-attacks","tag-guardian","tag-immigration","tag-racism","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32531,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32529\/revisions\/32531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}