AOC has right message on concentration camps -- even if we don't want to hear it
SAN DIEGO -- I'm A-OK with AOC.
Sure, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., says wild and crazy things. In that regard, she is a creature of the times and a perfect foil for a wild and crazy president.
The 29-year-old freshman lawmaker is wreaking havoc in the House of Representatives. She shows no fear, defies authority and doesn't flinch.
Those are good characteristics in a politician -- and in a journalist.
When you're one of only a handful of Latino syndicated columnists in the United States, folks have rigid expectations, and they're likely to be disappointed. Fellow Mexican Americans accuse me of "acting white" to be accepted by the establishment, while white folks worry that I've gone native and become too Mexican.
I recently disappointed a reader who has been sending me friendly emails for more than 15 years. He demanded that I write a "negative column" about Ocasio-Cortez after she said on Instagram: "The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border, and that is exactly what they are -- they are concentration camps."
I responded that Ocasio-Cortez had Merriam-Webster on her side. The dictionary defines a concentration camp as: "A place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard."
That's what is happening on the U.S.-Mexico border. News reports have revealed deplorable conditions in detention facilities housing hundreds of Central Americans who seek refugee status -- many of them children, who don't have soap, toothpaste, or adequate amounts of food and water.
That reality didn't bother the reader as much as AOC's choice of words. Calling it "distasteful" and "outrageous" for anyone to "equate the family separation to the concentration Nazi camps," he accused me of "basing [your] independent journalism on race" by focusing too much on "the plight of the Hispanics." He said, "I thought you were above that."
Baloney. People who read your words often assume they know you. But I didn't promise anything or mislead anyone.
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