On June 24, President Joe Biden delivered some — questionable — remarks in Raleigh, North Carolina (via New York Post).
As part of a nationwide “month of action” campaign that was created to boost the COVID-19 vaccination rate, Biden discussed why he believes that Black and Latinx Americans have received vaccines at a lower rate than White Americans. He stated, “There’s a reason why it’s been harder to get African Americans, initially, to get vaccinated. Because they’re used to being experimented on — Tuskegee Airmen and others. People have memories. People have long memories.” However, Biden confused the Tuskegee Airmen with the victims of the Tuskegee syphilis study.
The president continued to make strange remarks adding, “It’s awful hard, as well, to get Latinx vaccinated as well. Why? They’re worried that they’ll be vaccinated and deported.” This comment in particular sparked outrage among government officials and citizens, as well as, inspired an abundance of responses on Twitter.
Biden's remarks have dangerous implications
After President Joe Biden suggested Hispanic people aren’t getting vaccinated out of fear of deportation, many critics took issue with his usage of the word “Latinx.”
Former President George W. Bush’s former speechwriter Marc Thiessen tweeted, “Only 3% of Hispanics use the term ‘Latinx’ and 76% have never heard of it. It’s a term woke White people have imposed on them against their will which is racist.” However, another Twitter user retorted, “Many, many younger Latinx individuals use this term…it was created by THEM, to remove the gender from the word (Latina/Latino). It’s absolutely not a racist term, as you try to say it is.”
Another issue people had with his remarks was that it implied that many Hispanic living in the United States are here illegally. Tim Murtagh, the former Trump 2020 communications director, tweeted, “It does not occur to Joe Biden that tens of millions of Latinos are American citizens.”
Congresswoman Lauren Boebert echoed that sentiment and what it says about the president. She tweeted, “More of that classic Biden racism. Apparently the only reason Latinos don’t want to get vaccinated is because they fear getting deported. So according to Joe all Latinos are illegals?”
As of writing, Biden has not commented on the discussion surrounding his word choice.
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