Who Are the American Middle Easterners Who Are Insulted by Trump’s Attempt to Make America Fear Again?
Trump is going to block the refugee caravan from Honduras, partly because there are going to be criminals in the group, but also partly because there are well hidden Middle Easterners in the group. He is implying to his rally followers that any middle easterner is a real terrorist. This insults every Middle Easterner or person of Middle Eastern ancestry who is an American.
So I thought that I would find out how many Americans are considered to be Middle Easterners who are here already. Much to my surprise, I found out that I am a middle easterner. (And yes, everything in my blog is about myself.) I use Wikipedia’s definition, in an article answering this question. They use the expression MENA, Middle Easterner and North African.
By the 2010 census, there are 10 million Middle Eastern Americans. 6.5 million are Jewish Americans, and 3.7 million are Arab Americans. Among Arab Americans, 63% are Christian, 24% Muslim, and 13% other or no religion.
I was on sabbatical in Israel for a month, and spent a few weeks on vacation in Egypt. Neither I nor my known ancestors are from the Middle East. I thought that I was a Californian and an American. So please do not stop the parade on our accounts. We all make good Americans.
We should also point out that Trump has a daughter and a son-in-law who are now middle easterners, as well as three grand children. This could make for a tense Thanksgiving.
There are 41.3 million Americans who are actual immigrants. Of these, only 1.02 million or 2.5% are from MENA.
But please stop insulting us and all other Americans by your desperate fear campaign. The only thing we have to fear is Trump himself, and his adoption yesterday of the Nationalist label.
I may as well addresss the alleged criminal slander against refugees willing to walk a thousand miles in hot weather to Texas, or two thousand miles to California, for several months, to seek sanctuary for themselves and their children. First, this should makes us all appreciate how great it is to be American, and how lucky all of our ancestors were to arrive at a time that America was allowing immigrants. And to think about how we can be too lazy to even vote.
If we are serious about justice for criminals, we have to remember that before the FEAR campaign, the New York Times revealed that the Trump family should be investigated for fraud in not paying up to $500 million in taxes. Also, in the Trump tax bill, the abolishing of estate taxes will save the Trump’s hundreds of millions of dollars, from future taxes. Even if every person in the caravan were a thief, including women and children of the 5,000, how much would each have to steal to equal the $500 million that the Trump family allegedly shorted the American people on their taxes? The answer, $100,000 each!! So, the real thief might be flying around on Air Force One, at our expense.
