Are we done yet with the cat memes? I certainly hope so. For more than a week, jokes about rescuing Ohio’s pets had been consuming all the oxygen in my social media feeds. It was, in a way, a logical response to former President Donald Trump’s crude attack on Haitian immigrants during his ABC debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. I’m referencing, of course, his denouncing Haitian refugees in Springfield, Ohio with, “They’re eating the dogs!”
While many have initially focused on the humor of this ridiculous spectacle, I can’t find it funny. In fact, the more we learn about both the impact of this racist attack as well as its origin, the more apparent it becomes that Trump and running mate JD Vance are leading their followers down a very dangerous path. And those who amplify their narrative with jokes are, perhaps unwittingly, piling on as a new group of “others” are dehumanized and victimized by thinly-disguised hate speech.
Where did this nonsense come from? There are competing reports about the origin of the lie. Some thought it started with a third-hand FaceBook post subsequently retracted by its author (who has withdrawn her daughter from school out of fear for her safety) But the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe first amplified these false claims in August. These white supremacists knew exactly what they were doing with an unfounded attack that reads like a page from the original Nazi playbook. In that case, Nazis were using propaganda “to demonize Jews and create a climate of hostility and indifference toward their plight,” as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum puts it. And now, Haitian refugees are the focus of similar propaganda.
It’s not for me to assign motive to Trump, Vance, or others in leadership positions spreading the lies about Ohio’s Haitian immigrants. But they can’t claim they’re unaware of the danger they’re stirring up.
To be sure, Springfield is having difficulty accommodating the flood of refugees, who came legally and helped strengthen the local economy by answering the call to fill jobs in this small town. So many new residents arrived that schools and social services are overwhelmed. True leaders wouldn’t be mocking this struggle, they’d be identifying ways to use their positions to bring help to Springfield.
Citing bomb threats that have closed public schools and colleges, city offices, and even a community festival celebrating diversisty. Springfield Mayor Bob Rue says those who continue to repeat the lies, “need to know they’re hurting our city and it’s their words that are doing it.” He notes Republican Governor Mike DeWine “has been supportive…and helpful with resources to help stabilize our community, as any public official should be doing.”
Vance admits he ‘created stories’
While neither Trump nor Vance have produced any evidence for their claims, the local sheriff’s office has gone through about 11 months of calls, finding no reports of anyone harming local pets.
Does this danger concern Trump, Vance, and their fellow MAGA leaders? Do they, as leaders, call for followers to cool down the rhetoric before someone is seriously harmed? Nope. They double-down. Vance acknowledges the “it’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false” (they already have been) but adds, in a social media post, “keep the cat memes coming.”
Then he said the quiet part out loud in a CNN interview, insisting he feels the need to “create stories so that the … media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people.”
Asked whether the false rumors were “a story that you created,” Vance replied, “Yes!” He then said the claims were rooted in “accounts from … constituents,” although none such accounts have been documented.
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue says, “We need peace and rest in our community.” I’ll add that we need fewer jokes and more demands for accountability from those who use their public platforms to tell lies that stir up hate and endanger our communities.
Marj Halperin is a communications consultant to nonprofits and government agencies. Her political commentary has been featured on WGN TV, CTV Canada and WCPT radio.
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