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In reply to the discussion: "holders of European passports" wtf? [View all]Cleita
(75,480 posts)I should have spelled it out in detail on my OP but made the assumption that people would know that. Everything though is unimportant other than the words I posted in the title. It's racist dog whistle in any context. To state that the perpetrators are "passport holders" of certain nations instead of stating that they are citizens of whatever that nation is, is insinuating that they are members of a group that aren't really citizens of the nation they hold passports in. They are the OTHER. In effect it pushes all people of ME ethnicity into the category of terrorist. It's a red herring, of course, but very effectively used to disparage other groups.
I'm Latina in ethnicity among other roots. I was once referred to by some official numbskull as a self-described American even though she was holding my birth certificate and my American passport in front of her. This is no different but it's worse because it's lumping a group of people into a category that they are not quite full citizens and could be terrorists.