“Infest.” “Invade.” “Animals.”
This is the language Trump uses to describe people of color and immigrants — from his campaign launch denigrating Mexicans and Muslims to his comments this weekend attacking Rep. Elijah Cummings and the city of Baltimore.
This blatant racism isn’t a distraction. It has a clear purpose: to dehumanize black and brown people. It is a tactic with which Jews of all races are painfully familiar, rhetoric identical to the language that the Nazis used to justify genocide.
Trump’s white nationalist worldview holds that immigrants, Jews, Muslims and people of color do not belong here.
This racism, exclusion, and hatred were echoed in the Charlottesville chant “Jews will not replace us,” motivated shooters in Pittsburgh, Christchurch, Charleston, Poway, and now Gilroy, and drives brutal policies like child detention, mass incarceration, and the Muslim Ban.
As Jews, it is our obligation to condemn racism and xenophobia as well as the overwhelming silence accompanying it. Our history tells us the horrible cost of silence and inaction in the face of such hatred.
Trump’s racist lies and attacks aren’t just rhetoric. They are an existential threat to every one of us.
It’s why our Jewish community cannot — and will not — be silent. It’s why Bend the Arc has been leading Jewish resistance to Trump since 2015, it’s why we worked so hard to flip the House in 2018, and it’s why we’re mobilizing our resources now to grow the Jewish movement to stop Trump in 2020.
We will continue to speak out and resist Trump’s agenda. We will continue to reject white nationalism. We will continue to fight for a multiracial democracy where all of our communities can thrive.
In solidarity,
