“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. They’re…”
When this election refers to “them,” people are talking about me. I am half Mexican and half Egyptian. Half “should-be-deported” and half “should-be-interrogated.” Half “build a wall” and half “build a bomb shelter.” The noise about what to do about me is so loud, it might not seem as if I have a voice at all.
The main issue in this election is not an issue of policy — it is an issue of rhetoric. In attempt to attract a disgruntled alt-right voter who feels he has gained little in the past eight years and blames immigrants for his woes, Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has promised to get tough on immigrants in a way that is as violent rhetorically as it is politically, if not more so. When Trump snarls and shouts at rallies, he depicts every immigrant as a criminal, terrorist, and infiltrator who has somehow stolen, soiled, or stomped on America’s greatness. After all, it’s easier. It is always easier to disregard nuances, to make a few bad apples represent the entire tree. But what if it is, in fact, the nuances he is presenting as the norm? What if, as a whole, Muslims are good people? What if there are good and bad people everywhere — across all religions, all cultures, and all ethnic backgrounds?
Trump’s campaign is riding on the idea that the only way to Make America Great Again is to Make America Hate Again. And the sad part is that it is working. The fear and mistrust brewing in this country show how dangerous this rhetoric is and how quickly people cling to sweeping generalizations when they feel unsafe or defensive. Are we this willing to compromise on our American ideals? Think about it. There is an unbridled spread of Islamophobia — when religious tolerance was key in the formation of this country. There is an increasing dislike for immigrants — when we are all only in this country because some relative (distant or not) came here first. In ignoring this history, Trump has taken it upon himself to forge his own picture of our country’s future. How many of my labels prevents me from being in it?
Our country used to celebrate differences, for they made for richer company. But we cannot live in a melting pot if we label an entire race as selling pot. Trump’s rhetoric breeds a quickness to accept stereotypes. We fear things because we do not understand them, because the media is inherently biased. What happened to the idea that opportunity should be for all, across the border or not, Middle Eastern or not, hijab-bearing or not? Where hard work was the common denominator, not where you came from. Where what religion you follow only told someone what you believed in, not the harm they believe you are capable of.
We are frustrated. How many more breaths do we need to use trying to prove that the color of our skin, the dialect of our Spanish, the God we worship does not put us in a box, does not define us? That these walls he tries to build, that he tries to enclose us in, won’t do much in the end. This election has transformed from a political race into a race to say the next shocking thing, to achieve the next viral tweet, to alienate the next group of people.
And all for what? Where is the finish line?
What Trump fails to realize is that actual people comprise the groups he is so eager to label. He fails to acknowledge the facts. As the Washington Post pointed out last July, “a range of studies show there is no evidence immigrants commit more crimes than native-born Americans. In fact, first-generation immigrants are predisposed to lower crime rates than native-born Americans.” Trump’s arguments, however well-crafted and “fantastic” he might think they are, fall apart before he can articulate them because he has made one crucial mistake: He took the lazy way out. Blaming immigrants with crude stereotypes and generalizations to attract voters is a cynical calculation that believes racism sells and can win. His bombastic claims that he will make the Mexicans pay for a wall have won aggressive cheers from his supporters, but to what avail?
The groups Trump has targeted have endured worse than these lazy attempts to do away with them. We are people who, if we had ever let anyone’s words get to us before, would have stopped a long time ago. We are not passive. We do not “bring drugs;” we do not “bring crime;” we bring more to the table than Trump can ever bring. And that’s because there is no one Mexican experience, no single Muslim way of life, no American outlook cookie-cutter enough for him to generalize. In the end, Trump’s style reflects his content: overly broad and ultimately empty.
Contact Amanda Rizkalla at amariz ‘at’ stanford.edu.