America's Diversity Makes It Great

Headlines and social media chatter have highlighted the blatant racism and xenophobia at Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden last Sunday, including “jokes” that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage” and about Black people eating watermelon. Yet while I’m glad some people are waking up to this, it’s nothing new.

Back in Trump’s first campaign for President, he said of Mexicans: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Trump’s attacks on immigrants and refugees at the 2016 Republican National Convention spurred me to add a fundraiser supporting the International Rescue Committee to my Chicago Marathon training.

So the racism and xenophobia aren’t new. Yet they are unacceptable. They wouldn’t be allowed in most workplaces, and they certainly shouldn’t be accepted by a candidate for U.S. President (and former President). I would say the same for any country, but the U.S.A. is uniquely a nation of immigrants from around the world and people of all races to a degree not matched by any other country.

A video shared by LeBron James this week perhaps does the best job of overlaying the violent racism of Trump’s campaign with historic violence against civil rights activists. It includes video of Trump saying “They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” people waving Confederate flags and saying “We love Hitler, we love Trump” at Trump rallies, and also shows historic video of violent beatdowns of civil rights activists.

My parents would have washed my mouth out with soap if I talked about people the way Trump does. I don’t even know what would have happened if I said such remarks based on someone’s skin color, race or nation of origin. He’s been doing it for decades. Way back in 1973, the Justice Department sued Trump Management Company for not renting to Black people. He’s spouted birtherism conspiracy theories that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. and poked unfounded doubts at Kamala Harris’s Black and Indian heritage, as if someone can’t have multiple components to their identity. Back in 2018, he talked about immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and Africa, saying “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” while asking why we don’t have more immigrants from Nordic countries; and his Vice-President candidate, J.D. Vance is continuing the attacks on Haitian immigrants by saying they are eating cats and dogs.

All this is despicable strictly on a human basis.

But even if – and I am not advocating this nor do I feel this way – you only care about economic impact or crime rate, Trump is wrong!

Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born Americans. This is found in study after study, despite some delighting in Trump’s talk of putting undocumented immigrants in militarized camps. The National Catholic Register comes down hard against this plan on a moral basis, while also citing analysis by Bloomberg that such a set of deportations could lower U.S. GDP by more than 3% by 2028.

That doesn’t even take into account that immigrants operate entrepreneurial ventures far more than native-born Americans. 46 % of Fortune 500 companies in 2024 were founded by immigrants or their children. Fortune 500 CEOs include – besides the U.S. – people born in Iran, Spain, India, Russia, Taiwan, South Africa, Argentina and many more countries. Immigrants, which represent 14.3% of the U.S. population, are more likely to start a new business than native-born Americans and founded 55% of startups valued at more than $1 billion.

When criticizing athletes or entertainers or even politicians who are from the U.S., Trump heaps extra vitriol on those who are not white. He made a personal crusade against Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the National Anthem (and Kaepernick has not played in the league since), but also had attacks for James and Stephen Curry and Brittney Griner while she was in a Russian prison. He said four Congresswomen of color also known as “the Squad” should return to “broken and crime-infested” countries they came from, which in three of the four’s cases, would have meant – um – returning to the U.S., where they were born; and all four are U.S. citizens.

And when attacking Harris, he chooses to use racist, misogynoir tropes, saying things like that she is a “stupid person”, that she is “lazy as hell”, or repeatedly he and many of his supporters call her low-IQ: “she’s so impressive as the first Samoan-Malaysian, low-IQ, former California prosecutor ever to be elected president” or “Harris and her pimp handlers will destroy this country” (bringing both misogyny and racism together). Criticizing someone’s policies, even vehemently, is fine. Bringing in racism and sexism is beyond the pale – not only that, it’s nonsensical to say she’s “low-IQ” or “lazy.”

Racist and sexist attacks have real and dangerous consequences. Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, are receiving threats and even the (white) family of a boy killed in a car crash caused by a Haitian immigrant has to have police protection. The mass shooter in El Paso in 2019 told police he was looking to kill Mexicans, and he went to a Walmart in a Hispanic-dominant city to do so.

LeBron James got it right when he said: “What are we even talking about here?? When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!”