AOC has right message on concentration camps -- even if we don't want to hear it

Note that while the definition also says that the term is "used especially in reference to camps created by the Nazis in World War II for the internment and persecution of Jews and other prisoners," it does not say that the phrase is exclusively used that way.

Indeed, as has been pointed out in recent days, the Nazis didn't invent concentration camps. Weaponized incarceration predates the Holocaust by nearly a century, and it was a favorite tactic of colonial powers. The Spanish used it to quell uprisings during the Cuban War of Independence. The British used it in South Africa during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.

Americans used concentration camps -- i.e., mass incarceration of a particular group of human beings without trial -- in the mid-19th century, when Dakota Indians were interned at Fort Snelling in Minnesota. Most notoriously, the phrase aptly describes what we did to Japanese Americans during World War II. The actor and activist George Takei -- who was a boy at the time -- recently tweeted: "I know what concentration camps are. I was inside two of them, in America. And yes, we are operating such camps again."

Testify, brother.

Those comments split the U.S. Jewish community. Some Jews are offended that Ocasio-Cortez used such a loaded phrase, about which they can be territorial. But other Jews aren't bothered, because they think the term fits.

In an op-ed for Vox, Anna Lind-Guzik -- an attorney who has researched genocides, and the daughter of a Soviet Jewish refugee -- wrote: "Applying the term 'concentration camp' to the indefinite detention without trial of thousands of civilians in inhumane conditions -- under armed guard and without adequate provisions or medical care -- is not just appropriate, it's necessary."

Meanwhile, conservatives who scoff at the PC crowd for banning phrases like "illegal immigrant" are livid over the phrase: "concentration camps."

Yet House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy -- a Trump lackey who sold out his Central California farmer constituents to back an administration whose tariffs crush farming -- said AOC should apologize for using the phrase. The freshman congresswoman angrily shot back that it was McCarthy who owed everyone an apology for rubber-stamping the internment and mistreatment of infants, children and teenagers being interned, neglected and mistreated.

Americans are having an important discussion, even if it is uncomfortable. And Ocasio-Cortez kicked it off. For that, she doesn't owe us an apology. We owe her our gratitude.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.