This very well-fed Republican, in a quest to score points with backwards people by being shitty to Syrian refugees, went on an ugly racist tirade about the Vietnamese “eating dogs” as a reason the refugees shouldn’t be tolerated.
No, I don't get it either, but I am not backwards.
Faye Stewart is a Republican running for the Senate in Oregon and he made these remarks, apparently in a debate of some sort. At a “college.” Where smart people congregate.
Couching this in perfect xenophobic terms popular with Republicans, he complained that our cultures did not mix well (birds of a feather racism) and alleges they didn’t know how to use heat and built fires indoors. And sites hearsay as his evidence.
And then he goes there:
“Or, when they needed something to eat, they went to their natural ways of doing it by harvesting people’s dogs and cats, their pets,” Stewart added. “I question, why can’t we go over there and help them, in their native land and protect them there. Why do we need to bring them here and potentially jeopardize the citizens’ lives here?”
Just a breathtaking example of cultural ignorance and insensitivity. And remember, he is mixing Islamophobia in with this Vietnamese slur. This is his “rational explanation” for why they should not have to help Syrian refugees.
He has reportedly added that he is a sensitive person. Just thought you should know.
He will be running against Ron Wyden, a Democratic incumbent who, hopefully, will clean his clock.
And Stewart has apologized.
"Apologized” — you know how Republicans are about “apologizing.”
Nhu Le, public relations coordinator at the University of Oregon’s Asian Pacific American Student Union, said Stewart’s comments made it appear as if Vietnamese-Americans were inhuman and savage.
Well, that was a polite rebuttal to Stewart’s racist crap.
Stewart said he used those examples, which he said he had heard from a friend who lived in Portland at the time, to make a broader point that the United States needs to be careful about not creating a worse situation in trying to help people.
Stewart said he “made a mistake” and could have made his point “in a different fashion.”
“It’s just unfortunate that people are using dirty politics and cutting ... the question and context out and painting a very small sliver of what I said completely out of context.”
That is a standard Republican no-pology. He utters these inexcusable things and then he’s the victim of others and their gotcha politics.
Racists actually — a lot of times — are this stone ignorant. “I heard it from a friend.” Holy Cow.
Next: the United States needs to be careful about not creating a worse situation in trying to help people. Yeah, helping people out is a bad thing, especially if you are a Christian and a compassionate, sensitive conservative Republican. Does Jesus really want us to help people in dire situations? Leave them there to die because whatever?
My reaction to this is strong because my wife is from Vietnam and I have learned many things in being married to her for 10+ years. What this guy is spouting is pure ignorance of a mean-spirited sort: “step into the parking lot and say that to me” kind of stuff.
I have been privileged to hear many unbelievable and horrifying stories from her childhood about not having toys or food or money. I do psychotherapy for a living and never have heard stories like she has to tell, all coming from one person who seems quite resilient.
To have some overfed, privileged Republican fingerwagging something he knows exactly jack shit about isn’t acceptable because of the way it tars and denigrates a people who have been through more than their share of The Crap.
She did tell me a story about one person cooking a dog over an open fire when she was in fourth grade. He was about 200 yards from her school: she could see and smell this and had nightmares about it. She described it in traumatic terms, once, several years ago and she’s never ever talked about it again. Nothing similar has ever come up.
But there were many tales of not having anything to eat, including a story about a day when they had nothing to eat but a pile of watercress. Her mom was worrying how to feed the family. Lots of hardship.
A man came by on a three wheel bike loaded with Dungeness crabs. It hit a bump and one big crab fell off.
Her mom ran out to snatch it and there was crab soup with watercress. THAT is day-to-day, hand-to-mouth living. Many stories like this.
She always asks me every day if I have eaten. Eating every day is a big deal to her and many Vietnamese people. Because there are lots of memories of not getting to do so.
I think most Americans these days are not aware of what this level of poverty is like. Some are, for certain. I see a lot of people who are poor live on a very fixed income and struggle, but a lot of people — myself included — aren’t experienced with the level of poverty she describes.
I have run out of money at times when I was younger and have missed a meal here and there but that is not — to me — remotely comparable. It just doesn’t count.
When I went to Vietnam it was just eye-opening.
It is a very very poor country. But I still saw children dressed nicely, wearing gold earrings, colorful, smiling. As a child therapist, they appeared happy and well-adjusted, playing like children should play. And wicked with the soccer.
I saw a few women on motorbikes with little dogs in the baskets on the handle bars. Dog food is sold in the stores JUST LIKE HERE IN MURICA! One of the very first things I saw the first morning I woke up in Nha Trang was this dude with two big Rottis.
What I LEARNED was that yes, Vietnam is quite poor but that America is way more than just rich: it is simply choking on way too much. We are 5 percent of the world population yet we use 25 percent of the resources and we still have racist asshole Republican-types wailing about what poor people from poor, war-torn countries are going to take from us.
If you have seen the disparity, then you’ll know exactly how outrageous and unacceptable these comment from this ... guy … truly are.