Republican memes of sombreros, mustaches are racist and childish. Apologize | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Republican leaders used sombrero and mustache memes to mock Hakeem Jeffries.
- Latino groups and Jeffries denounced the images as racist and disinformation.
- Critics urged GOP apologies and a return to negotiations on Medicaid and ACA tax credits.
While an estimated 750,000 federal workers are furloughed because of the fourth federal government shutdown during President Donald Trump’s administration, the White House and Sen. Ted Cruz shared an AI-generated video of Minority House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries with a sombrero and mustache — a racist meme that is unbecoming of our nation’s leaders.
The president posted a video on Truth Social of Jeffries in front of an all-Trump mariachi playing “El Jarabe Tapatío.”
The White House suggested Wednesday that the childish act will continue. “Every day Democrats keep the government shut down, the sombrero gets 10x bigger,” said its message on X.
Cruz, one of six Latinos in the U.S. Senate, jumped into the act on his personal X account by posting a video of Democratic senators decked out in sombreros and fake mustaches.
“The 44 Senate Democrats who voted for Schumer’s Shutdown should know that the Sombrero posting will continue until they re-open our government,” wrote Cruz, who ended the post with “Hey, Macarena!”
Hey, Rafael, the 1996 song was by singers in Spain where the sombrero is as foreign as decency is to you.
Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, pooh-poohs negative reaction to the memes.
“I think it’s funny. The president’s joking and we’re having a good time,” Vance said about the sombrero memes, telling Jeffries “if you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop.”
“Is he a Mexican American that is offended by having a sombrero meme?” Vance said about Jeffries. “Give the country a little credit. We are all trying to do a very important job for the American people.”
The vice president’s remarks are ridiculous, but this is where we find ourselves today: in a society where memes masquerade for policy.
What’s next? More memes?
¡Ay caray! What a way to run the greatest country in history! What next? Tattoos of nopales on undocumented residents who won’t self-deport? Memes of Speedy Gonzales speeding southward to the border followed by an army of undocumented à la the Pied Piper?
Jeffries lambasted the videos as “bigoted” and “racist.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who appears to the left of Jeffries in the video, blasted back: “If you think your shutdown is a joke, it just proves what we all know: You can’t negotiate. You can only throw tantrums.”
Republicans aren’t taking the real issues seriously — like protecting Medicaid for millions of people or providing federal tax credits for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace — if sombrero memes are part of their negotiating arsenal.
The sombrero can be a powerful image
As an immigrant (legal) myself, I see the sombrero/mustache memes as racist. There’s no other way to feel about them.
Leading Latino organizations, like the League of United Latin American Citizens, UnidosUs and Voto Latino, blasted the Republicans in a shared statement on Wednesday.
“The troubling use of AI to amplify hateful stereotypes is not only reckless, but it serves as an act of disinformation designed to further stigmatize Latinos when the tensions facing the community driven by policy and rhetoric are at an all-time high,” the groups said.
I’m proud of the sombrero image as long as it’s not used as a meme to defile immigrants. The sombrero represents braceros whose labor during World War II kept the U.S. economy humming, farmworkers and construction workers who continue to do the work Americans won’t, entrepreneurs who generate more than $800 billion a year for the economy and musicians, artists and authors who enrich this country’s culture.
In 2009, the theme for the Fresno County Academic Decathlon was Latin America, and organizers dressed a dummy up as the stereotypical sleepy Mexican as part of the decorations. To its credit, the organization apologized when a Vida en el Valle reporter questioned the use of such a racist image.
Republicans need to apologize not only to Jeffries, but to the Latino community. If a high school event can learn from a mistake and apologize, so should the GOP.
