During a policy meeting about immigration this week, President Donald Trump reportedly did one of the worst things he’s ever done since taking off, which is really saying something. Members of Congress presented the president with an immigration plan that would have offered more visas to people from nations with protected status and people from underrepresented parts of the world, particularly Haiti and parts of Africa, respectively. Trump objected, vocally, crudely, and horrifyingly, asking rhetorically, “Why are we having all these people from sh*thole counties come here?” So yeah, he just referred to a large swath of the world as a “sh*thole,” and racially deriding the people from those places in the process.
The African Union, which held an emergency meeting at the U.N. on Friday, has issued a response. It’s a collective that represents African countries on the worldwide stage, and its members expressed “shock, dismay, and outrage” over Trump’s words via a statement and brief news conference.
And the African Union speaks. pic.twitter.com/brUVx6SS7S
— John Dramani Mahama (@JDMahama) January 12, 2018
The group called out Trump for being a jerk—an un-American one at that—and wants an apology, post-haste. Here’s the statement:
The African Union Mission wishes to express its infuriation, disappointment and outrage over the unfortunate comment made by Mr. Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, which remarks dishonor the celebrated American creed and respect for diversity and human dignity.
While expressing our shock, dismay and outrage, the African Union strongly believes that there is a huge misunderstanding of the African continent and its people by the current Administration. There is a serious need for dialogue between the U.S. Administration and the African countries.
The Africa Union, through its Member States, values the strategic partnership with the U.S. This relationship should be from the point of equality and mutual respect based on accepted international principles of respect of basic human dignity for all.
The African Union Mission condemns the comments in the strongest terms and demands a retraction of the comment as well as an apology to not only to the Africans but to all people of African descent around the globe.
Many other people from around the world side with the AU and would also like to see that apology. (It’s probably not going to happen, but still.)