In July, US president Donald Trump posted a now-infamous thread on Twitter: “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” he tweeted. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.”
As has become characteristic of American politics, a media battle erupted in the wake of these remarks, conservatives and progressives alike inflamed with moral indignation. Many pundits and political figures condemned the comments as racist, xenophobic, and anti-American, while others defended them vociferously—describing critics as the true racists, shamelessly playing the victim for political benefit. While unbiased observers might have made a range of interpretations of the president’s original tweets, the subsequent chants of “Send her back!” that were left unchallenged at a Trump rally reduced the ambiguity of his missive. News of the chants fanned the fire on talk radio, on cable news analysis shows, and across social media, disturbing many in the US who have been made to feel disparaged or unwelcome at some point in their lives on the basis of their race, ethnicity, or national origin.