'Eating Cats And Dogs:' Trump Is A Racist

During his recent debate with Kamala Harris, Donald Trump's unhinged decision to repeat the [verified false] urban legend of Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating their neighbors' pets immediately triggered a flood of comical memes on social media. They are pretty entertaining.

That said, let us keep in mind that the people from Haiti living in Springfield, OH, and elsewhere are in the U.S. legally. They are refugees granted protected status because of the turmoil in their home country.

Trump and his ilk are conflating Haitian refugees with immigrants who crossed a border without legal authorization, lumping them all together. Infamously, he has been equally disgusting in his hate speech toward undocumented immigrants, slandering them as rapists, escapees from "insane asylums," and terrorists. 

Repeatedly blathering these outlandish lies about Haitians "eating cats and dogs" and insisting they are true ["I saw it on television!"] is crass, ugly xenophobia.

Throughout our history we have heard this discriminatory bilge before: immigrants from [fill in the blank] are all [fill in the blank]. To inflame public distrust of legal immigrants [like, for instance, my wife of 30-plus years] with maniacal lies is to encourage reactions of fear and hatred. This is literally the definition of xenophobia.

That it is coming from a presidential nominee – a nominee from any party – is remarkable, awful, and should be disqualifying.

Let's call it out. This is not just laughably bizarre crackpot craziness deserving mockery [although it is that]. This is hate speech. This is racism. This should mark the end of Donald Trump's misadventures in politics.