Since the 2016 U.S. election, America has seen a large change in those who run and get elected into office. Many women and minority groups have taken their seat in Washington D.C. as U.S. citizens want to see a change from the status quo of career politicians. Of these newcomers is Ilhan Omar, a Muslim woman serving Minnesota’s 5th congressional district.
Since elected, Omar has experienced a lot of Republican backlash from questions of her U.S. citizenship to her religious choice to wear a hijab in the nation’s capital. Although she is in fact a United States citizen and has a right to wear what she chooses in D.C., for every action she seems to take towards one of her political views, Republicans dig deeper into their claims in a way to discredit her.
Earlier this month, emails from White House advisor Stephen Miller were leaked, showing hundreds of conversations Miller had with a Breitbart News reporter. In these emails, Miller was trying to push the idea of immigrants and rising crime, which has been debunked among sharing other articles from other noted white supremacist websites. With Democrats calling for his resignation, the White House stands behind Miller (Rose, 2019).
Omar, who had once tweeted about Miller calling him a white supremacist, brought this tweet back after the news of the leaked emails saying that she was right.
This was met with hostility from Republicans. A White House official even telling news stations that Omar’s comments “are the latest example of her well-known, well-documented, rampant anti-Semitism.” (Chiu, 2019). Republicans showed their support for these claims showing stereotype, a belief about the personal attributes of a group of people. Since Omar is of Islam faith, Republicans generalize that she is against Jewish people, without having any facts to back that up.
The Republican’s hostile take on a congresswoman calling out a White House advisor for proof of white supremacist ties begs the question: would the same anger be taken if Omar was not a Muslim woman? Most likely not as this is a clear example of discrimination, unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members, since Republicans are taking out this aggression out on Omar.
Brody Gaura
References
Chiu, A. (2019, November 15). The GOP attacked Ilhan Omar for calling Stephen Miller a ‘white nationalist.’ She says his leaked emails prove her right. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11/13/ilhan-omar-stephen-miller-leaked-emails-anti-semitic-white-nationalist/.
Omar, I. [@IlhanMN]. (2019, November 12). Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/11/26/783047584/leaked-emails-fuel-calls-for-stephen-miller-to-leave-white-house
Rose, J. (2019, November 26). Leaked Emails Fuel Calls For Stephen Miller To Leave White House. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/11/26/783047584/leaked-emails-fuel-calls-for-stephen-miller-to-leave-white-house.