OPINION AND COMMENTARY
Editorials and other Opinion content offer perspectives on issues important to our community and are independent from the work of our newsroom reporters.
The outrageous accusations snowballing through social and mainstream media against Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, are not just malicious, obvious fabrications. They are part of a dangerous plan pulled from a well-worn playbook that, throughout human history, has allowed manipulative leaders to convince people to inflict horrific real-world harm on their neighbors.
But we do not need to let the playbook work.
The accusations that Haitians in Springfield are harming the town’s pets fall squarely in the tradition of the 1994 Rwandan genocide perpetrators calling ethnic Hutus and their Tutsi allies “cockroaches” or Adolph Hitler accusing Jews of threatening non-Jews in Germany.
This false and dangerous speech demonizes whole groups of people and inflames its audience’s fears.
The speech may not immediately produce physical attacks. Still, the leaders hope that if they repeat it, enough people who should know better will put aside their inherent human decency and either join in horrific attacks themselves or tolerate them.
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