
Tomi Lahren Criticized Immigrants, Then Someone Pointed Out Some Facts About Her Genealogy
By Mustafa GatollariUpdated
There are some political commentators who make a living out of saying incendiary remarks just to pander to certain audiences in order to maintain a career. Tomi Lahren seems to be one of those commentators.
Despite radically changing her political views, and being shut down time and again, Lahren still gets work.
She has a particular hatred of "snowflakes," even though she displays some snowflake-like behavior herself, if you ask me.
Hold on...didnt you get fired for not agreeing with your boss....
— Ivette the very stable genius (@spramp08) May 22, 2017
This website is free pic.twitter.com/fTZPR7Jbus
— med (@medBCB) January 10, 2017
Lahren is now back at it again, going on a tirade against immigrants who refuse to assimilate into American culture and learn to speak English.
.@TomiLahren: "You don't just come into this country with low skills, low education, not understanding the language and come into our country because someone says it makes them feel nice. That's not what this country is based on." @WattersWorld pic.twitter.com/Dux0cABHar
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 13, 2018
"You don’t just come into this country with low skills, low education, not understanding the language and come into our country because someone says it makes them feel nice. That’s not what this country is based on. These people need to understand that it’s a privilege to be an American and it’s a privilege that you work toward—it’s not a right."
However Twitter users pointed out that it's just another case of Lahren being hypocritical, because a look into her own family history suggests that she's living in a glass house and throwing lots of stones.
Specifically, Jennifer Mendelsohn, the creator of #resistancegenealogy, a movement designed to show hyper-nationalists and 'Murican "purists" that they're not so "pure" themselves, was the one to serve Lahren up some facts that poked giant holes in her argument.
Except the 1930 census says Tomi's 3x great-grandmother had been here for 41 years and still spoke German.
— Jennifer Mendelsohn (@CleverTitleTK) May 13, 2018
Her 2nd great-grandmother had been here for 10 yrs. Spoke no English.
Her great-grandfather's 1895 baptism from MN? Recorded in Norwegian.#resistancegenealogy #receipts pic.twitter.com/rIySFu6fvL
Turns out Lahren's ancestors were here for 41 and 10 years respectively and allegedly, neither of them ever learned to speak English.
They immigrated from Germany and Norway only to have Lahren, generations later, secure a net worth of $3 million for herself by preaching that other families should be restricted from the same privileges she benefited from.
For Mendelsohn, it's not about "catching" Lahren in an embarrassing moments, it's about making a point that the Americans who immigrated to the United States years ago are seeking the same opportunities that immigrants did years ago.
One last thing before I shut off my phone:
— Jennifer Mendelsohn (@CleverTitleTK) May 13, 2018
This is not about playing gotcha.
But as long as people like Lahren continue to push a specious agenda that suggests today's immigrants are somehow wholly different from previous ones, I'll keep showing just how alike they really are.
She wants to combat the narrative that the immigrants who came to American years ago were "cut from a different cloth" or had "different intentions" than hopeful immigrants today.
I'll forever be mystified by Joe Schmo twitter user who bemoans how the country is no longer "close nit" and somehow can intuit that ALL the motivations of all current immigrants are bad ("handouts!") while all the prior immigrants' motivations were good.
— Jennifer Mendelsohn (@CleverTitleTK) May 13, 2018
Uh, no.
They faced the same hardships, had the same dreams, and also faced the same prejudices years ago as well. Take for instance, these anti-semitic, racist ads Jewish immigrants had to deal with when coming to America generations earlier.
Or even the discrimination Irish immigrants faced when they came to America en masse.
Mendelsohn's point is that America has always been built on immigration and the idea that accepting people from different cultural backgrounds is somehow incompatible with the "American Way of Life" is categorically false.
What I'm trying to show here is that these nativists can't keep trying to back up their argument by saying "the country doesn't work this way" when clearly it does, and has: for their families.
— Jennifer Mendelsohn (@CleverTitleTK) May 13, 2018
So why do they *really* not want these people here? That's what we need to dig out.
Oh, and it's also worth examining why you might laud your own ancestors’ behavior as pluck or ingenuity – “So he bribed the official to sign the papers and they were able to get on the boat!” – but castigate contemporary immigrants who behave in much the same way.#FoodForThought
— Jennifer Mendelsohn (@CleverTitleTK) May 13, 2018
Mendelsohn capped her Twitter thread by finding some common ground with Lahren.
Those who’ve followed me for a long time know I’ve shared tons of stuff about my own family. Some of my ancestors never learned English, either. Some never became citizens. There’s nothing shameful in that.
— Jennifer Mendelsohn (@CleverTitleTK) May 13, 2018
Look, Tomi! We have something in common.
There have been tons of instances where Lahren was caught criticizing behavior she was guilty of or benefited from herself, like when she accused "lazy liberals" or wanting handouts.
But meanwhile, on her own Twitter account...
This website is free pic.twitter.com/fTZPR7Jbus
— med (@medBCB) January 10, 2017
She's been involved in so many "pot-kettle" moments it's getting hard to keep track.
lmao isn't this you guys pic.twitter.com/5JjhFr3WoJ
— life speedrun (@gokuheadass) November 13, 2017
What do you think?