Some popular conservatives are once again flying in to defend President Donald Trump’s every word. Trump is currently under fire for expressing his distaste for immigration from African countries and Haiti and for allegedly referring to them as “sh*thole countries” during a private White House meeting Thursday. While critics are describing these comments as racist and offensive, several of Trump’s supporters are combatting these claims of racism by citing Asian-origin immigrants.
According to a White House official, Trump expressed his openness to Asian immigrants because he felt that they could help the United States economically, reports The Washington Post. Conservative commentators argue that this statement nullifies accusations of racism.
Conservative political analyst Carrie Sheffield appeared on CNN Thursday night and accused her fellow panelists of ignoring the president’s comment, claiming that Trump “said he would welcome immigrants from Asia, so he is open to accepting people from other countries,” referencing information from a White House official, reports HuffPost.
Liberal commentator Keith Boykin responded that such beliefs “play into the stereotype of the model minority,” which he later said “is a form of racism too.”
Jenn Fang from Reappropriate argued in a blog post that sentiments like Sheffield’s “use the false and cliched trope of the Model Minority Myth to both legitimize and reinforce anti-blackness.”
The “model minority” stereotype Boykin and Fang referred to implies that Asian Americans are superior to other racial minorities, based on high median incomes and college graduate rates. Many believe that the “model minority myth” is harmful to the Asian American community because it ignores “socioeconomic and education disparities among the diverse range of communities categorized as Asian-American,” wrote The New York Times in 2015.
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