Ocasio-Cortez: Addressing Racism Is ‘Key’ to Understanding the ‘Hustle’ Against Working People

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) suggested that the Trump administration and GOP use racism as a way to push corrupt policies and argued that deep discussions on racism are “key” to understanding their “hustle against working people.”

The freshman Democrat went on a rant Tuesday, decrying “corruption” in Washington D.C. and suggesting that her political opponents – i.e. the GOP and Trump administration – use “racism” as a way to cover up corruption.

“Since corruption isn’t popular policy, racism works as the cover for the con. That’s why addressing racism isn’t a ‘distraction’ – it’s key to understanding the hustle against working people,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

“Culturally, racism is used as the unspoken cudgel against pro-working class policy,” she continued, citing the Trump administration’s “super racist immigration” policies like the “Muslim Ban” and “concentration camps.”

“The corruption of Trump – of many admins – wouldn’t be politically possible without relying on sympathy for racist policies,” she added:

Since corruption isn’t popular policy, racism works as the cover for the con. That’s why addressing racism isn’t a “distraction” – it’s key to understanding the hustle against working people.

Culturally, racism is used as the unspoken cudgel against pro-working class policy. /2

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 3, 2019

The corruption of Trump – of many admins – wouldn’t be politically possible without relying on sympathy for racist policies.

That’s what Reagan’s Black “welfare queen” was all about, too.

If people think they’re “paying for someone else,” they’ll dismantle their own healthcare.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 3, 2019

Beyond the moral wrong, racism is a powerful political tool used to dismantle public goods & civil rights.

So long as bigoted sympathies exist (subtly or loud), they will be used. That’s why convincing people racism is a sidenote,&not broad or institutional, is a strategic move.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 3, 2019

However, the outwardly “racist” policies Ocasio-Cortez cites are not as she describes. President Trump did not implement a blanket Muslim ban. The freshman Democrat was referring to the effective restrictions of legal immigration from countries with documented issues of terrorism. The original list was based on a handful of countries previously flagged by the Obama administration, and it did not affect the vast majority of Muslim nations.

Ocasio-Cortez has also come under fire for inaccurately describing migrant detention shelters as concentration camps. Holocaust survivors have taken issue with her assessment, specifically.

Despite Ocasio-Cortez’s assertion, there is no evidence of Trump or his administration using racism to “dismantle public goods & civil rights.”

This is far from the first time Ocasio-Cortez has accused Trump, his supporters, allies, and the GOP of covertly using racism to advance bigoted policies or agendas. The New York lawmaker told Crooked Media’s Pod Save America last month that many Trump supporters are simply not educated enough to understand that they are supporting racist policies.

“It’s not about asking are Trump voters racist. We need to talk about racism, not racists. Racist — it’s a very two-dimensional, boring conversation,” she said. “Is something racist, yes or no.”

She said that Trump “relied on a coalition” full of racists, as well as “all sorts of other people that could be susceptible to racist views.”

“So there are a lot of people that support Trump that genuinely don’t believe that they are racist because we do not talk about or educate people on recognizing racism,” she said.

“And because we do not do that we get caught in this debate of is something racist. Then people use their defensiveness, and they say, ‘Well, it’s not racist because I’m not racist and I believe this thing because it’s economic in nature,'” she added.