Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez on Saturday slammed President Joe Biden’s Thursday speech in which he used the term “latinx” to describe Latin-Americans, as well as insinuate that all Latin-Americans were illegal immigrants, calling his comments “racist.”
Gimenez, who immigrated to the US with his family as a kid from Cuba, wrote on Twitter “never mind the racist undertones in implying all Latinos are undocumented, using the term ‘Latinx’ is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s insulting to our culture to try and restructure an entire language to fit your politics. Keep your wokeness out of our language,” he continued.
Never mind the racist undertones in implying all Latinos are undocumented, using the term “Latinx” is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
It’s insulting to our culture to try and restructure an entire language to fit your politics. Keep your wokeness out of our language. pic.twitter.com/xw0edPMp0A— Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez (@RepCarlos) June 27, 2021
During a visit to North Carolina on Thursday in which Biden hoped to push more Americans to get vaccinated, Biden stated “It’s awful hard as well, to get Latinx vaccinated as well. Why? They’re worried they’ll be vaccinated and deported.”
Gimenez spoke on the comments as well as the push to get Americans vaccinated during a Fox & Friends interview Saturday.
When asked whether immigration status amongst the Latino population was an issue in getting more people vaccinated, Gimenez stated “No, I don’t think so.”
“Look, in Miami Dade County, we don’t ask, we don’t ask your immigrant status,” Gimenez said. “I mean, you can get vaccinated, we want everybody to be vaccinated, and that’s not going to be the issue.”
“So there are people that, unfortunately do not want to get vaccinated either because they’re fearful, or they just don’t want to be vaccinated. And so we need to, we need to push the vaccinations as much as possible, we need to get as many Americans vaccinated as possible,” he continued.
Gimenez said it was important to get people vaccinated so we can go back to “the old normal, which is really what we all want,” adding that “it’s their right not to be vaccinated. It’s also our right, the people that have been vaccinated, to go back to living our life in as normal fashion, as you know, pre COVID-19 fashion as possible. We need to do that as quickly as possible.”
Gimenez was also asked about Biden’s use of “latinx,” to which he said he didn’t know what to make of it.
“Look, I’m Hispanic, I’m a legal immigrant,” said Gimenez. “I’m a citizen of the United States. I’m a U.S. Congressman. And so, no, we are just like everybody else. We came here looking for a better life, my father, my mother brought me here looking for a better life, escaping socialism and communism in Cuba. And we’re really proud to be Americans, and so that somehow we’re different than anybody else, and that we’re afraid we’re going to be deported, no, that’s not the case.”
“And so, you know, I think the president really is out of touch with what’s really happening on the ground,” he continued. “And so, you know, again, I urge everybody to be vaccinated. But again, that’s our American rights to do as we want. I don’t know of anybody that can’t get vaccinated. And so once that happens, then we should just open up and go back to business.”
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