By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
BROWNSVILLE, Texas |...Sex crimes by hot-blooded immigrants. Beyond swimming the passive Rio Grande, we mean. The worst of crime. Crimes against American women, White women especially. That is the issue front-center in Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump's campaign.
In his active mind, it's always a brown-skinned man accosting a White woman. Never mind that Trump is one who's been convicted of rape in New York. No, that's okay - it was White-on-White sex.
The attack and murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley last February by an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela in Georgia fueled the narrative, this one sailing onward from Trump's initial speech for office in which he labeled all Mexican "illegals" as being rapists.
Who knows what the data would show? Statistics on Undocumented Brown men raping White women cannot be found, not as such. It happens every day in porn scenes, but that's acceptable. The FBI has statistics on rape by Americans, yes. Trump is not playing that tune. Perhaps, in his mind, White women being raped by White men or American Browns is okay, fine.
It continues as an issue at his rallies. He spewed the same fear over the weekend. You'd think these rapes are a daily occurrence. Maybe he knows something we don't. The media, however, does not seem to be a part of his spiel. Rapes are covered in news reports generally, by local outlets for the most part, unless it's one that grabs national headlines, like Miss Riley's.
Should we care about the fearmongering?
It's politics and, well, these days everything goes in that world.
This nugget from dailykos.com grabbed my attention: [ Republicans who are pushing for more restrictive immigration policy ahead of a pivotal election year continue to lean on an old strategy in their appeal to voters: broadly framing immigrant men as dangerous next to imagery of young white women victims. ]
It's not all that new. We've heard it in the past, although never this loudly coming from the mouth of a candidate. Mostly, it was the Black Card these White politicians played, especially in the American South. Looking at a White women could get you hanged, went the line. So true.
Supposedly, these new immigrants are looking for work and a better life.
But who knows? Perhaps we're not so in-the-know about these things.
Sex is a human need, yes.
I suspect, however, that it is not atop the list of a newcomer's must-dos once inside this country. I mean, what do White people imagine - every one of these guys pouncing on the first chubby White chick they see? Yeah, sure. The imagination also deals in votes. It's an easy one for the brain. And, for some, it is tell-me-what-to-think these days.
Donald Trump knows that. He reads his rally audiences; he fashions what they want to hear.
By now, well know that Trump is a master racist, one unashamed to throw out the worst in himself.
He loves women, is what he has said often.
And, on this, he likely figures all men love women. What he hasn't spotlighted is the possibility that these hot-blooded undocumented immigrants are also targeting Black and Brown women for sexual gratification.
But then, he may not care about the rape of non-White women...
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