A lot of people did the good and understandable thing of laughing uproariously when Donald Trump went on his racist non-sequitur about immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. I laughed too, because it sounded like something only someone completely unhinged would say. Except that, for me, it had eerie echoes.
You all know that my grandfather is Chinese, and faced plenty of racist policy growing up in Canada. His parents had to pay a headtax to get him into the country in 1910. And despite being brought over to build major national infrastructure like our transcontinental railway, the Chinese Canadian community were not allowed the rights of citizenship, including serving in the army and voting, until 1947. Chinese Americans faced similar systemic discrimination in the United States. So, it's more than likely that my grandfather faced personal discrimination of anti-Chinese behaviour and rhetoric, including the old trope that Chinese restaurants served up dog and cat meat. He was a chef at several of them, after all, and owned a few at one point.
So, the fearmongering about dogs and cats of Springfield the same-old same-old anti-(insert scapegoat here) rhetoric that fascists and wanna-be dictators take up to distract people from the real threats, such as the very fascists and wanna-be dictators that would co-opt their support. This isn't so much a racist dog-whistle as it is a trumpet.
But there is more to this story that should make those of us who laughed at Trump's unhinged raving stop laughing. Because it wasn't as out-of-nowhere as you think. There are real targets here, who are being scapegoated.
Springfield, Ohio, with a population of 60,000, now has 15,000 Haitian immigrants. They were taken into the United States from a collapsing country, and deposited into a city that used to be significantly larger, but had fallen on hard-times, losing population and jobs. Thanks to the policies of the Biden Administration, many of those jobs were brought back, but because of Springfield's population decline, there weren't enough people to work them. So, the new Haitian community was brought on board, to work some of those jobs and contribute their economic activity to the economy. That strikes me as a sound and mutually-beneficial arrangement for the old community of Springfield, and the newly-arrived immigrants.
Like any demographic shift, there have been points of tension, but the overwhelming majority in Springfield would tell you that this move has been a boon to the wider community. And living in a diverse community like Toronto or Kitchener-Waterloo, I can tell you that Springfield has benefitted and will continue to benefit from these hardworking immigrants. This is the story of Toronto. This is the story of Canada. Heck, it's the story of America.
But, sadly, so too is the lies that get told at immigrants' expense. We're dog eaters. We're not like "normal" people. We are people who should be feared. We are people who should be attacked and driven away.
This is why, as I write this, racists are calling in bomb threats to schools in Springfield. The Haitian community isn't laughing at Trump's racist non-sequitur, they're terrified. And they absolutely did nothing to deserve this.
Fuck Trump. Fuck his supporters. They all belong in jail.