The frightening political history of the word “infest.”
www.politico.com
This is an interesting piece.
Thanks for the article. What sticks out to me is the article makes the leap to interpret Trump's words based on history of it's use:
Trump’s defenders are saying he was referring to rodents and crime, not people. But the history of how “infestation” has been used politically shows that the distinction is blurrier than they would like to admit. Historically, the verb “infest” has been used to talk not just about literal pests and diseases, but also to compare people—very often minorities and immigrant groups—to pests and diseases.
And yet, the quotes of Trump they use for this basis are:
“We’re looking to get zoning for a piece of land that’s unzoned, that’s employing no people, that’s sitting there rotting. It’s rat-infested.”
“tarnished, second-rate, rodent-infested commercial building.”
“a rat-infested dump.”
“disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.”
“the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
whose Atlanta district he called “crime infested,”
“the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S.”
“illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country.”
“this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept,” and that “we have an ‘infestation’ of MS-13 GANGS in certain parts of our country.”
why soldiers were being sent into “Ebola infested areas of Africa.”
He clearly has historically designated what kind of 'infestation' he is referring to, whether it is rodents (usually, AND in this case by the words he actually used), or in reference to crime (again, explicit in the words he used) , or in reference to immigrants (open to be taken as racist or xenophobic). Can anyone argue areas of high occurrence of ebola are not 'infestations'? Technically, I think the argument can be made based on the definition and general interpretation of the word 'infestation', but it still gets his point across - an area with a lot of it.
The article's author does a great job explaining how the word 'infestation' has been used over time to dehumanize groups of people and make them easier to eliminate. I don't think there is much argument against this fact. But ....
If the man said 'rodent-infested', as he did in this case, I'm taking it as referencing rodents not people or race. Not anything other than rodents, because, you know, that's what he said.
