Republican and Democratic leaders alike and Puerto Rican celebrities bashed comments made at a major Donald Trump event in New York by a comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”
Speaking before the Republican presidential candidate at a rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night, comedian and podcast host Tony Hinchcliffe added that Latinos “love making babies” and that they do not “pull out,” comments that leaned into a racist trope that Latinos are preoccupied with childbearing and averse to birth control.
“There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now,” Hinchcliffe said. “I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
The presidential campaign of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats, several prominent Puerto Rican celebrities and some congressional Republicans denounced the comments, which were widely panned as racist.
There’s a quote from the article that genuinely bugged me: “I really believe it was racist,” said Rosa. “And I was a very strong supporter of Trump until yesterday.”
I like that more people are seeing DJT for the shitty person he is. The more votes he loses the better. But Trump and co. have been racist and horrible in other glaring ways for a long time and it’s been on full blast in the last year. Given how openly it was happening, ostensibly that person supported DJT when he talked about banning all Muslims, lied about Haitians eating pets, and discussed building mass detention centers for unwanted immigrants. It wasn’t until that hatred was pointed at her and people she cared about that it became unacceptable. I mean… thanks for getting off a terrible train and better late than never, but people should consider that if it’s not acceptable treatment of you and yours then it shouldn’t be ok for others.