Opinion: This Land Was [Not] Made for You and Me

Trump released an anti-Democrat video to his Twitter account last week which has been labeled as “racist” by CNN and was pulled from the air due to its “insensitive nature” by NBC and FOX. As we know, Number 45 is not so shy when it comes to letting us know his opinions—especially when it comes to his Twitter.

This past election season, we found ourselves amidst the affliction of campaign ads that maybe go something like this: a candidate who is running against me has spent X amount of dollars and is going to ruin your economy and make you pay more in taxes. Make the right decision on Election Day and vote for me. This message is sponsored by my campaign organization.

To some extent, these videos are overplayed, and we can understand the propaganda behind them. As preposterous and silly we may think these ads are, this newest one trumps them all.

Trump’s ad depicted Luis Bracamontes, a Mexican citizen who came into the United States and has been convicted for the murder of two northern California law enforcement officers. Videos of him in court vowing to kill more cops were played underneath different banners saying things such as “DEMOCRATS LET HIM INTO OUR COUNTRY.” Montages followed, showing migrant caravans at different checkpoints and at one point trying to deface a fence. Another clip showed a migrant saying he is going to try and apply for a pardon of a felony, in this case, a felony of attempted murder. At this point in the video, another banner says, “WHO ELSE WOULD DEMOCRATS LET IN?”

Now, the reason CNN can call this ad racist is simply because—well—it is racist. The clips within the video stigmatize a large group of people by portraying migrants as violent criminals. This narrative cannot be followed simply because it is unfair to say that anyone who wants to come into this country is here to commit murder. The real kicker of the message is that this specific immigrant has killed law-abiding United States citizens. By showing this, it can instill hate within people who have a deep love for their country and the people who are here (legally…that is).

Trump’s personal agenda is clear: Mexican immigrants are dangerous, and if we vote Democrat, more will be let into the United States. This type of anecdote is fear-mongering and proves that Trump is willing to further the divide between red and blue.

There were a lot of different responses that Trump got from his tweet and there were some specifically directly to his initial tweet. One Twitter user, @thatsabigno, had this to say:

“This is how you’re going to heal the divide in America? By blaming Democrats for something that happened under Republicans? I wish you could act like an adult, or lead like you love America, and not like you only love power.”

Other users took it upon themselves to debunk the situation themselves, presenting videos, articles and gifs of how Bracamontes actually came into the country under the Bush administration, and then was let go by Sheriff Joe Arpaio—a Sheriff who was pardoned by Trump himself.

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This is not the first time Trump has made racially charged comments towards Mexican immigrants (or anyone of color for that matter). However, for some reason his supporters keep allowing it to happen and ultimately see nothing wrong with it. He has struck a chord with a lot of angry people—which is the scary part. As the President of the United States, Trump has the power to send out advertisements like this, ultimately influencing an untold amount of viewers. We do not even need to fact check this video. Besides that Bracamontes may have gotten into the country under Bush, we can see the blatant defamation of Mexicans and Mexican migrants, or anyone who identifies with those groups of people.

And we all thought #spookyszn was over.