The Media construction of a Threat: Scapegoating the Latinx community to make »America Great Again«
The Media construction of a Threat: Scapegoating the Latinx community to make »America Great Again«

Author(s): Jenna Ellis
Subject(s): Governance, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies
Published by: IFIMES Mednarodni inštitut za bližnjevzhodne in balkanske študije
Keywords: MAGA; Trump-Administration;
Summary/Abstract: Historically as well as contemporarily, immigration has been a key and extremely polarizing issue in American political discussion and discourse at all levels of US society. Certain leaders have maintained more open and accepting immigration policies but while others have used their position and leverage to launch anti-immigrant campaigns. With the rise in forced disapearenced attributed to ICE raids, illegal detainment and deportation under Trump’s leadership during his second term in what the IFIMES reported as a decisive yet telling victory, it has become necessary to reflect on his past term. From 2015-2021, discussions surrounding migration became the forefront of media, connected to Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric. While Donald Trump was not the first, nor the last politician to blame and misrepresent migration for political gain, there is little denying the sensational nature of the topic following his speeches and statements. Blaming latinx migrants as a threat and blurring the definition of what it means to be a latinx as well as a migrant, Trump was able to exploit misinformed US citizens into believing migrants from the southern border were a threat to American safety, prosperity and cultural identity-a narrative amplified by mainstream and conservative outlets. Drawing on scapegoating theory as present by authors Mellema and Glick, this paper explores the ways in which the Trump administration and American media collaborated both explicitly and implicitly inconstructing false narratives of Latinx migrants as scapegoats for national grievances related to crime, the economy and cultural change. In examining this dynamic phenomenon, it can be seen and understood how systematic discrimination and racialized narratives are legitimized and established in present day United States society.

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