In the news...

[Angrboda]

Leading up to Tuesday’s debate, Trump shared on social media altered images of himself protecting various pets, in what appeared to be a reference to the Springfield claim.

The memes took on a more menacing look in social media platforms used by far-right extremists such as the Proud Boys and armed groups.

Seemingly overnight, the same forums that days ago were preoccupied with an imagined Venezuelan takeover of Colorado shifted to fearmongering about Haitians in Ohio. In these forums, the racism is overt, such as memes of Trump in a suit carrying kittens to safety while being pursued by a mob of shirtless Black men. Or jokes about calling the authorities when French-speaking Black people move into the neighborhood.

Haitians invariably were shown in tropes portraying them as dangerous savages; images of guns and other weapons are sometimes presented as “the answer” to a refugee “problem.” Hate trackers say they’re concerned about the risk of such dehumanizing language and imagery fueling violence toward Black people and immigrants. Mass shooters in El Paso and Buffalo are among several far-right attackers who have cited racist, xenophobic rhetoric as a justification for bloodshed.

Kathleen Belew, a historian of U.S. white-supremacist movements, wrote on X on Tuesday that such demonization campaigns are an old tactic that should be taken seriously. The debunked claims about Haitian refugees aren’t “just nonsense,” Belew warned: “The people spreading this rhetoric either know exactly what they’re doing, or they should know. But violence follows. Every time.”

Anatomy of a racist smear: How false claims of pet-eating immigrants caught on