A United Nations-backed committee issued a report this week saying “racist hate speech” by President Donald Trump and other U.S. political leaders is fueling human rights violations against immigrants and asylum-seekers.
The report, from the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, affirmed what many Americans have witnessed with their own eyes as the Trump administration has promoted white supremacist propaganda while waging a racist anti-immigrant crackdown.
“Racist hate speech by political leaders, including the President, combined with intensified immigration crackdowns in the United States, notably near schools, hospitals and faith-based institutions, has sparked grave human rights violations,” the CERD said in a news release.
“Portraying [migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers] as criminals or as a burden, by politicians and influential public figures at the highest level, particularly the President,” the committee said, “may incite racial discrimination and hate crimes.”
There have been numerous examples over the years of people launching violent attacks, including the attempted Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and intimidation attempts following racist rhetoric promoted by Trump and his allies.
The report specifically warns about the use of social media to push racist propaganda, as this administration has done.
CERD is “gravely concerned” about federal immigration officials using of racial profiling, which the Republican-led Supreme Court authorized last year.
The Trump administration, which has placed racist trolls and white supremacists in the upper echelons of government, downplayed the report. In a statement to The Associated Press, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales said, “No one cares what the biased United Nations’ so-called ‘experts’ think, because Americans are living in a safer, stronger country than ever before.”
To be clear, there’s no legitimate reason to doubt the expertise underlying this report or to think bias was a factor in drafting it, particularly given that its findings comport with things many Americans have witnessed over the last year.
It does seem the Trump administration might be more than a little tender over the fact Trump is apparently the only president of late whose specific conduct has been rebuked in such a report.
As the AP noted, “Trump, as well as Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, have been in office when the U.N. condemned systemic racism, hate and discrimination. But the panel this time specifically cited Trump’s speech as part of the problem.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.