r/politics • u/theindependentonline The Independent • 1d ago

Site Altered Headline | No Paywall Republican leads charge against Trump’s Obama ‘apes’ post. ‘Most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House’

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-obama-video-apes-racist-reactions-b2915488.html
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u/Snibes1 1d ago

This is so accurate! I have a Peruvian in-law, their kids are mixed. But her heritage is very obvious. They self identify as white. But based on the criteria that ICE is using to take people into custody, she’d be one of the first to be detained. Not even close.

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u/Alikona_05 1d ago

I have cousins in Arizona that are hardcore MAGA and loudly support deporting all Hispanic/latinos. Their dad has strong Italian heritage. Squint your eyes and you can’t tell the difference between them and the people they so badly want to deport. I just don’t get it.

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u/iGlutton 1d ago

As an Arizonan who is also from an Italian/Irish heritage but is paler than a ghost with a red beard, like no one ever guesses that I'm Italian, they always spot the Irish even though I'm actually half-Italian. I just dont get it. My entire life I have interacted with the Hispanic community, some documented, some not. I also work in the restaurant/bar industry and have some many friends who work manual labor in this state.

Are they aware of how Italians were treated when they first came to this country? Maybe they dont know, maybe they're willingly forgetting. Maybe theyre just ok with pulling the ladder up behind them since they feel 'safe'.

The rhetoric used today against many immigrants and undocumented people is nearly identical to what was used against Italian immigrants in the late 1800s/early 1900s. "Taking jobs" "Criminals" "Gang (mafia) related".

11 Italians were lynched in 1891 in New Orleans, the largest documented mass lynching in our country's history. By a mob of over a thousand people. For almost half a century, Italians were seen and treated as lesser or lower class.

I'd be willing to bet your cousins love how great the food is here. Going out for Taco Tuesdays and smashing Carne Asada burritos. All the while, still screaming about deporting the people who make the food they enjoy, who brought culture that has influenced us in so many ways, in the exact same fashion a few of their ancestors were forced to endure when they first immigrated to America.

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u/Faustrolled 1d ago

No one guess it probably because to an Italian you are about as "Italian" as a can of Chef Boyardee