Ricky Martin Calls Trump’s Views Racist And Ignorant In Scathing Univision Op-Ed
Ricky Martin denounced Donald Trump’s “racist” and “ignorant” comments about Latinos in a Univision Op-Ed that he wrote. Martin is angry about what he termed Trump’s continuing harassment of the Latino community in the United States. In strong words, singer Ricky Martin called for unity.
Trump’s behavior at a press conference in Iowa on Tuesday made Ricky Martin’s blood boil, and he felt he had to speak out.
Here are some excerpts from Ricky Martin’s call to action against Trump, as translated by Billboard.com.
“When did this character assume he could make comments that are racist, absurd, and above all incoherent and ignorant about us Latinos?”
“Jorge Ramos was doing HIS JOB as a journalist at a press conference in which he appeared freely and democratically, representing one of the most important Latin television networks in the world and with the same right to freely exercise his profession as all other journalists.”
“This action from Trump doesn’t surprise me, what does surprise me is that as Hispanics we continue to accept the aggressions and accusations of people like him who attack our dignity.”
“Xenophobia as a political strategy is the lowest you can go in search of political power.”
“This is an issue that unites us and we need to battle it together, not just for us but for the evolution of humanity and those to come.”
At the press conference, Univision correspondent Jorge Ramos was trying to get Trump to answer a question about immigration. It should be mentioned that Ramos was not called on to ask a question, which is the proper way to ask a question during a Q and A with a presidential candidate.
Trump got annoyed and scolded Ramos before having him ejected from the room.
“Sit down. You weren’t called on. Sit down. Go back to Univision.”
Trump’s references to “anchor babies,” to Mexico supposedly sending criminals and rapists to the US, and his threats to build a border fence have made many Latino Americans feel demeaned and insulted.
When Ramos was allowed back into the news conference, he confronted Trump with the statistics from recent polls.
“Seventy-five percent of Latinos have a negative opinion of you.”
Meanwhile, along with Ricky Martin, Americans of both Latino and non-Latino heritage have quite a high opinion of Jorge Ramos. Other journalists have called him the “Walter Cronkite” of Latin America, and he is known as the “face of Univision.”
Fox News Latino reported that besides Ricky Martin, other prominent Latinos have criticized Trump.
“Actress America Ferrera wrote an open letter in July thanking Trump for bringing Latinos together while Eva Longoria slammed him and invoked Adolf Hitler while discussing his remarks.”
Ricky Martin was born in Puerto Rico and feels solidarity with Latino Americans of all origins. Martin’s music has just reached another peak of popularity. Martin’s single “La Mordidita,” featuring Yotuel, has just become the Number One Single on the Latin Airplay chart. This is the 15th time that Ricky Martin has topped the chart.
The fact that such a respected musician and Latino role model as Ricky Martin has denounced Donald Trump’s views about Latino immigrants is making headlines all over the world.
[Image credited to Eva Rinaldi via Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 2.0]
