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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.
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." @WattersWorldpic.twitter.com/Dux0cABHar
"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.
Her 2nd great-grandmother had been here for 10 yrs. Spoke no English.
— Jennifer Mendelsohn (@CleverTitleTK) May 13, 2018
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: 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.
— Jennifer Mendelsohn (@CleverTitleTK) May 13, 2018
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.
Uh, no.
— Jennifer Mendelsohn (@CleverTitleTK) May 13, 2018
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.
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.
So why do they *really* not want these people here? That's what we need to dig out.
— Jennifer Mendelsohn (@CleverTitleTK) May 13, 2018
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.
Look, Tomi! We have something in common.
— Jennifer Mendelsohn (@CleverTitleTK) May 13, 2018
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.
