George Takei illustrates why it's important to remember history (Warning: Political)

"Xyl0c41n3" (i-am-xyl0c41n3) 07/23/2016 at 16:17 • Filed to: George Takei, racism, Elections 2016, Donald Trump

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In a four-and-a-half minute long video, the popular actor best known for his work as Mr. Sulu (Hikari Sulu) on the original Star Trek series, implored Latinos to not vote for Trump. And he does it in our native tongue, Spanish.

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This political season has had me increasingly worried. Living, as I do, in a region with a majority Latino population and seeing so much of that population leaning towards Trump scares the crap out of me. Those fears have escalated in the wake of Donald Trump’s 75 minute long speech accepting the nomination of the Republican Party this week.

Trump’s speech was filled with factual inaccuracies aimed at stoking fear of Mexicans (and other Latinos), refugees and the black community. His rhetoric elicited cheers for blood from the RNC audience. I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel a little nauseous and anxious listening to him yell for over an hour and the glee with which the audience responded.

So back to George Takei.

Takei and his family were rounded up and sent to internment camps for Japanese Americans and immigrants during World War II, all for the unforgivable crime of sharing an ancestry with the men who bombed Pearl Harbor.

Their rights were forfeited — for four years — because of racial hysteria and fear.

Understandably, Takei has noticed some parallels between what happened in the 1940s and the popular racist rhetoric Trump — and as a consequence, the entire GOP — is spreading today. His video, linked below, is an impassioned plea to Latinos to let our voices be heard and hopefully prevent the repeating of a shameful history he experienced first hand.

It’s a powerful video, from recounting his own history with brutal honesty, to the respect he shows the Latino community by speaking to us in our common language (and doing a pretty fine job of it, IMHO).

Please, take a moment to watch. (For some reason, the Facebook video won’t embed here in the post).

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…

H/t BorgChupacabras for tweeting the link to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

sonicgabe > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 16:36

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Last summer, we drove by the camp that Takei was in. Just the road sign for the museum is enough to make your stomach turn.

Xyl0c41n3 > sonicgabe 07/23/2016 at 16:38

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We (all of us, no matter where on the political spectrum we fall) like to think we’re better than stuff like that. The sad fact is, we’re not.

We have too few Takeis left among us who remember the more sordid parts of our past. We need to value voices like his.

Birddog > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 16:43

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“Trump’s speech was filled with factual inaccuracies aimed at stoking fear of Mexicans (and other Latinos), refugees and the black community”

The Democratic party has been doing this since LBJ.

It would be nice if a solid Independent candidate would pop up and finally throw this train off the tracks.

I’m not holding my breath.

Xyl0c41n3 > Birddog 07/23/2016 at 16:45

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Too late for this election cycle. We have our two choices, for better or for worse.

ETA: I would partially disagree with you on on point, though:

BOTH parties skew facts in their favor. Both parties lie. However, the level at which EVERYTHING Trump said in his acceptance speech Thursday was just mind boggling in its wrongness.

Sweet Trav > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 16:45

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Not to mention Korematsu sits like a loaded gun waiting for Trump to use it.

EL_ULY > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 16:48

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umm....

Xyl0c41n3 > EL_ULY 07/23/2016 at 16:50

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Not even Cookie Monsters?! 

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 17:00

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For my Native friends, I guarantee they are not Trump supporters.

Spridget > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 17:17

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I don’t really lean right or left; I agree with the conservatives on some and liberals on other. However, the rhetoric being spewed by the republican party this election in appalling. Trump has no campaign plan whatsoever; he’s main ideas are “immigrants are bad” “fuck the establishment” and “[insert name here] is a p**** who can’t do shit; I’m a buisness man who can.” My main problem, besides his lying, name calling, and racism is the fact that the he IS the establishment; he’s lying to all of his supporters. Trump is a Manhattan millionaire trust fund baby with bad ideas; he has nothing in common with poor people in the southeast. I know this for a fact; I live in North Carolina, a state that has also made headlines for hateful rhetoric. We elected a conservative former CEO who claimed to be a man of the people, and he’s done nothing to help our state.

yamahog > Spridget 07/23/2016 at 17:20

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few more sentences and I’d probably volunteer to be your campaign manager. SPRIDGET 2016!

wiffleballtony > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 17:46

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I in no way support Trump and will not be voting for him. With that said there are plenty of reasons to not vote for the alternative as well.

Berang > Spridget 07/23/2016 at 17:53

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I wonder if anybody in this country will ever realize that a super-rich guy is just incapable of understanding poverty. And it doesn’t really seem to matter if they started out with nothing, once they get money they lose perspective.

TheD0k_2many toys 2little time > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 17:58

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Because the clintons are such high upstanding people as well... Both candidates suck more than a vacuum.

Birddog > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 18:58

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I won’t argue Trumps verbal vomit. I have a lot of relatives that love him. I don’t get it.

I can’t take Hill either though. She’s spun some yarns. She’s just less IN YO FACE with her BS.

You’re right though. It is too late.

Xyl0c41n3 > TheD0k_2many toys 2little time 07/23/2016 at 19:02

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One sucks more than the other, though.

One has called my father a rapist and me lazy and stupid. Has called some of my best friends inherently violent. Other of my friends he has called ISIS-in-disguise.

One is infinitely worse than the other.

TheD0k_2many toys 2little time > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 19:53

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one abandoned our military in a crisis situation. either way both suck the same in my opinion

Xyl0c41n3 > TheD0k_2many toys 2little time 07/23/2016 at 19:56

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Yeah, I’m nonplussed by both. (Though Benghazi isn’t why). But again, one is catastrophically worse than the other. And no matter how we feel, we're presented with only them two as choices.

TheD0k_2many toys 2little time > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 19:58

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yea because there is no way an independant will win. Hopefully that starts to change though. For upcoming elections

Xyl0c41n3 > TheD0k_2many toys 2little time 07/23/2016 at 20:07

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For this election cycle? There really isn’t a way for an independent or other third party candidate to win. Any third party votes will just go towards making the Clinton/Trump race all the more narrow. It sucks, but that’s the reality.

Will that change in future election cycles? Maybe. People on both side of the aisle are fed up with the “establishment” as represented by their party’s leaders (both blue and red).

But we’re just not there yet, and definitely not for the November election. Voting third party or abstaining to vote, I fear, would give Trump the benefit, and that’s not acceptable.

On a related note, though...

Where we as voters CAN make a more tangible impact is with our state, county and municipal elections. There are a LOT of congressional seats up for grabs in November, too, both at the national level and within state legislatures. Everything from school board, to city council, to sheriff, to judges, to representatives, senators, etc.

Those people tend to have closer relationships with their constituents and it’s in those elections where our voices as voters have more power.

Get out there and vote in November.

TheD0k_2many toys 2little time > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 20:09

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i plan on voting i always try to even for local things. I hope that this starts a change in america in terms of more than just 2 parties. Guess it usually gets worse before it gets better right

Spridget > Berang 07/23/2016 at 20:48

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Agreed- not only are most rich guys out of touch, but there’re almost universally sociopathic egomaniacs. Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Howard Hughes, etc. Even Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were a bit nutty until they had a life changing event (Gates having kids, retiring, and getting married, and Buffett having prostate cancer.) No rich person really understands what it’s like to be poor.

Agrajag > Xyl0c41n3 07/23/2016 at 22:30

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Well said, Takei.

nermal > Xyl0c41n3 07/24/2016 at 07:39

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What’s so dangerous about having an immigration policy, and enforcing it?

Along those lines, what’s the issue with saying that both the current immigration policy and its enforcement need to be tightened up a bit?

X37.9XXS > Xyl0c41n3 07/24/2016 at 12:12

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I am with the honest candidate

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Xyl0c41n3 07/25/2016 at 11:17

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I can’t watch the video due to being at work, but I’m glad it exists and it’s cool that Takei went to the effort to make this (in Spanish, no less!). Japanese internment camps fascinate me as it’s a bit of American history that people seem to love to gloss over and seem to get uncomfortable talking about because it is a reminder that the government is not infallible, and what might seem like a good idea at the time could end up being an atrocity (much like Trump himself, amusingly).

I long for the day when extremist bullshit such as the internment camps and the bullshit fear mongering racist rhetoric that spews from the face of a rich man-child with an ego larger than his failures, but I fear we have gone far past the point where the nation jumped the shark.

Xyl0c41n3 > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 07/25/2016 at 11:29

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I recommend watching it when you’ve got the chance. It’s sub-titled in English the whole way through. And yeah, I was a little surprised at the Spanish, too. Aside from a couple of syntax errors, it’s really good. In the video, Takei says he grew up with lots of Latino neighbors and that’s why he know Spanish.

Basically, I love George Takei even more now. :)

As to the rest of your comment... Yeah... I could write a novel about shit like that.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Xyl0c41n3 07/25/2016 at 11:50

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I don’t think it’s physically possible to not love George Takei.

DipodomysDeserti > Xyl0c41n3 07/25/2016 at 18:31

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There's a cave around the corner from me where Tonto women and children were massacred by the US Cavalry. There's no plaque to commemorate it. Many of the atrocities committed by the US aren't remembered.

Xyl0c41n3 > DipodomysDeserti 07/25/2016 at 19:11

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Thousands of Latinos were lynched during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Oftentimes, these murders were sanctioned and carried out by agents of the state (sheriffs, Texas Rangers, etc), yet none of this history is taught in Texas schools (or in other southwestern states, AFAIK).

Even when my parents were in school, Latinos were segregated. Few people realize that, after the black community, the Latino community (especially Mexicans and Mexican Americans) suffered some of the worst racially motivated atrocities.

There were some schools in Texas that remained de facto segregated as late as 1989. Whites went to one school, while blacks and Latinos went to another.

These things are real. Shit like this still happens today. It’s imperative that we remember, especially when so many people (including far too many people here on Oppo) deny that racism is a current event or that it’s as bad as it is.

Anyway, if you want to read about Latino lynchings, here’s a good NYT story about it from last year.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/opi…

DipodomysDeserti > Xyl0c41n3 07/25/2016 at 21:36

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Yep. Many also don’t realize that American citizens of Mexican heritage were exiled to Mexico during the Great Depression. There’s a great book on it called “Decade of Betrayal”.