Lately, I’ve been shocked to read the racist, intolerant, and ignorant bullshit being spewed forth by my Facebook “friends”(none of whom are Donald Trump). The rhetoric is eerily familiar given how many WWII-themed novels I've read this year, and I thought I’d do a little research and post a fun little quiz that you won’t find on buzzfeed anytime soon.
Below is a carefully curated collection of quotes about refugees. Some are from WWII, some are from the current “crisis”. None are from Donald Trump. Match the quote to the century!
Whether you played along and quizzed yourself or just read through the quotes, the point is pretty clear. A point that is summed up best by a quote from Jesse LaGreca's twitter:
Below is a carefully curated collection of quotes about refugees. Some are from WWII, some are from the current “crisis”. None are from Donald Trump. Match the quote to the century!
- “Under these lax regulations, many [refugees] are coming to this country to join the ranks of those who hate our institutions and want to over throw them.”
- "It's an invasion that threatens our prosperity, our security, our culture and identity."
- “... the evidence is very strong...in a large percentage of the race there are tendencies and trends which are dangerous indeed.”
- “My own feeling is that nothing is to be gained by creating an internal problem in an effort to meet an international one. I fear we would have riots if we agreed to a policy that admitted numbers of [refugees]."
- “They literally want to overthrow our society and replace it with their radical view of the future”
- “As our own economy continues to decline, jobs are lost by the thousands, we Canadians need to look after our own. Let's stop the government spending of our tax dollars on refugees that we can't support.”
- "Many of the bogus asylum seekers flooding into Britain are cheats and criminals.”
- “What the federal government is doing is importing danger...into the United States through the refugee program.”
Whether you played along and quizzed yourself or just read through the quotes, the point is pretty clear. A point that is summed up best by a quote from Jesse LaGreca's twitter:
New test: replace the word "Muslims" with "Jews" and then ask yourself "Do I sound like a fucking Nazi?"
The quotes in the quiz are all from real people, people with an captive audience. I didn’t include any direct quotes from Facebook feed because, frankly, the poor grammar would have been a dead give-away. But it’s out there. Friends, grandparents, cousins who should know better. People with kids who are passing on intolerance to the next generation.
Sometimes I think about un-friending the small-minded bigots of my facebook feed, but I like to keep them around to remind myself that, astonishingly there are people who are letting history repeat itself. A reminder to the rest of us to try and change their minds.
Sources:
1 - Julia Cantacuzene, the granddaughter of President Ulysses Grant, May 18, 1938 Source
2 - Geert Wilders, Dutch politican, October 9, 2015 Source
3 - Goldwyn Smith, British Historian and Journalist, February 20, 1946 Source
4 - Excerpts from Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s diary, 1947 Source
5 - Marco Rubio, Florida senator and Republican Presidential candidate, November 14, 2015 Source
6 - “Stop the immigration of refugees to Canada” petition, signed by 29, 403 people as of this posting. Source
7. The Sunday People newspaper, March 5, 2000 Source
8. Gov. Greg Abbot’s Twitter account, December 9, 2015 Source
1 - Julia Cantacuzene, the granddaughter of President Ulysses Grant, May 18, 1938 Source
2 - Geert Wilders, Dutch politican, October 9, 2015 Source
3 - Goldwyn Smith, British Historian and Journalist, February 20, 1946 Source
4 - Excerpts from Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s diary, 1947 Source
5 - Marco Rubio, Florida senator and Republican Presidential candidate, November 14, 2015 Source
6 - “Stop the immigration of refugees to Canada” petition, signed by 29, 403 people as of this posting. Source
7. The Sunday People newspaper, March 5, 2000 Source
8. Gov. Greg Abbot’s Twitter account, December 9, 2015 Source