As of recently, the debate between two presidential candidates, Donald J Trump and Kamala Harris has taken place. Similarly to many other presidential debates, there has been many different controversies springing up regarding the contents of said debate. This year, the United States has been hooked on the absurdity of one single quote by former president Trump regarding immigrants: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs… they’re eating the pets of the people that live there”.
The origin of Trump’s claim, as false as it is, was based on other misinterpreted events. Calling immigrants has not been a new thing done by people to demonize others, Accusing immigrants of eating dogs has not been a new thing and has been a common stereotype for many Asians. The rumors had originally circulated from a Facebook post regarding Springfield’s crime where Erika Lee, a resident of the city, had shared that a neighbor had been skeptical about their missing cat. The neighbor in question had suspected that they suspected that their Haitian neighbors had done something to the cat.
Similarly, a photo depicting a man holding a dead goose had sprung up in another city from the same state. The image had been misinterpreted and taken out of context; while there had been a 911 report about Haitians catching geese, there was no evidence to conclude that the report was true or that the man in the aforementioned image was either an immigrant or had taken the geese.
Trump’s claims were a woven string of different events that ended up as a misleading story. While the story was not completely baseless, it was indefinitely not a true statement that should not have been taken seriously. As a result of these claims, not only have there been many bomb threats made, but also the presence of fear spread among the residents.
Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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