How the Media used Trump to insult Mexicans
MEDIA MEME: In his first campaign speech, Trump said that all Mexicans are rapists.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: Trump said no such thing. But many reporters, news commentators, and political pundits said it frequently.
An expanded, revised version of this article is now available in the new book: The Media Versus the Apprentice: The Devil Mr. Trump.
In the Fall of 2015, I taught a new course at the University of Texas at Austin. The title was Discovery History. I wanted to help students investigate topics of their choosing, in order to make their own discoveries about what really happened. I also chose a couple of puzzles to investigate for myself. One of them was “illegal immigration.”
I wanted to know: What’s the problem? How big is it?
I was curious about what were the actual numbers of people who entered into the US illegally in a given year. I also wanted to know how many of them had been convicted of committing crimes.
But these numbers didn’t seem to be available anywhere. So instead, I looked for related numbers: How many people are detained trying to enter the US? How many are sent back to their country of origin? And, how many of them had been previously convicted of committing crimes, whether it be in the US or elsewhere?
While working on this, I kept hearing or reading news stories that claimed to quote Donald Trump’s first speech when he announced his candidacy for US President. Most commentators ridiculed or denounced what Trump had said.
So I went back to the speech, which I had heard originally in the summer, and laughed about, to hear it again. Surprisingly, what Trump said was very different from what most writers now said he said. And to me, the difference was huge.
But I soon discovered that when I tried to talk about this with friends, some of them strongly disagreed and insisted that Trump had said something else. When I played or read it out to them, word by word, they then said that Trump still meant what they thought he meant.
The issue is: How can we convince one another of a what a sentence means? Should we discard whatever the speaker intended to mean, in favor of whatever it means to us? But before we consider what each party said, I’ve got an idea. If you’ll please bear with me, I want to distinguish sharply between some different sentences, to show that we can agree about some things.
The following five statements do not all say the same thing.
I ask you to please pinpoint the differences between these five statements. One of them is true. Another one might be true. The other three are false and horrifyingly offensive. Which is which? Also, I beg you not to keep reading at all until you’re fully convinced that these five statements each say something different. None of these statement are quotations of Trump or of anyone in particular.
• Very few Mexicans are criminals or rapists.
• All Mexicans are rapists.
• Mexican immigrants are criminals and rapists.
• Mexican unauthorized immigrants are rapists.
• Mexico is pushing some of its people into the US; not its best people, but people with lots of problems.
Presumably some of them are good people, but others bring drugs, crime, or have been convicted of committing acts of sexual aggression, at least according to some US border guards.
If you read all five of these statements and sensed that they all say the same thing, then I beg you to please read then again. I ask that you don’t bother to read anything else here unless you do agree with me that each of these statements makes different claims, and that most of them are not true.
During his infamous speech, Donald Trump said some words about Mexico. The question is what did he say? And what did he mean?
Many people say that Trump said that “Mexicans are rapists.” Other people say that Trump said “Mexican immigrants are criminals and rapists.” But as we said, these are very different claims. Both are false, yet they’re saying different things.
If Trump said either of these things, then one can see why many people would feel offended and upset. And in 2015 there were many, many people annoyed at Trump: most Democrats, millions of Republicans, most political pundits, many college students, etc.
So in another one of my courses, I asked my students: “What has Donald Trump said that you found most offensive?” One student raised her hand high: “He said that all Mexicans are rapists.” I asked a coworker the same question. He replied: “He said that all Mexican immigrants are rapists.”
Those were basically options 2 and 3 above. Note, however, that they don’t mean the same thing. So who’s right? The student or my coworker?
Really, who was right?
The same thing happened in newspapers and hundreds of articles online. Some said that Trump said all Mexicans are rapists. Others said that Trump said that Mexican immigrants are rapists. Who was right?
To figure it out, we might well read or hear Trump’s words again, and then check with the list of options above, to see which option most closely resembles what he said.
This is what Trump said:
“When do we beat Mexico at the border? They’re laughing at us, at our stupidity. […] When Mexico sends its people they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you; they’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting.”
Most people writing online, as well as critics in general, seriously thought that Trump’s words meant options 2 or 3 above.
Alberto A. Martinez is a professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin.
