.JPG&w=3840&q=100)
As the jokes fly, Alligator Alcatraz evokes racist trope of ‘gator bait'
The jokes about alligators attacking immigrants while in detention have been casually tossed around by President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis and conservative and far-right influencers. The Florida GOP and Attorney General James Uthmeier are cashing in on 'Alligator Alcatraz' merchandise, some that prominently feature alligators, to fundraise for campaigns. The 'gators, in this case, are the good guys. The folks inside the detention center, no matter their story or status, are tempting treats for Florida's newly deputized reptilian law enforcement.
The mocking of immigrant detainees harks back to 'the worst parts of our history' when similar jokes and tropes, such as 'gator bait,' were used to dehumanize Black people and desensitize people to the harm and violence inflicted upon them, says ACLU Florida Executive Director Bacardi Jackson.
The 'gator bait' trope, which has been well-documented by the Jim Crow Museum in Big Rapids, Mich., implied that Black people don't deserve protection against the hazards of nature. In the museum's archive are articles detailing how Black babies, referred to by the slur pickaninnies, were used as bait to lure out and kill Florida alligator. The National Museum of African American History and Culture's archive features postcards depicting Black children sitting near swamps to lure alligators. And the same disregard for humanity is now being applied to detainees who will be housed in the detention center, historian Marvin Dunn told the Miami Herald. 'Basically, the same kind of anger, the same kind of resentment is now being transferred to immigrants,' he said.
'These kinds of tropes and jokes were made as a way to keep people from thinking of Black people as human. And now, when we are in this situation where what is happening to immigrant people, who are largely Black and brown people, it's the same exact thing. It's the dehumanization,' said Jackson. 'It's the desensitizing [of] folks in the hopes of not having people rise up against such cruelty and treatment of others.'
Jackson said when people see political leaders make light of real danger to people, it gives others permission to be 'callous, cold and hateful,' similar to when Gov. Ron Desantis told drivers it was OK to hit protesters during the recent No Kings protests against Trump if they felt they were being endangered.
'You have a right to flee for your safety, and so if you drive off and you hit one of these people, that's their fault for impinging on you,' DeSantis told a podcast last month.
'It's the invitation for others to see people as less than human,' Jackson said. 'That one creates the environment where a government can come up with more cruel and harmful policies.'
Dunn said the term 'gator bait' never left the lexicon, particularly in the South. White nationalists use the term all the time and it is an 'inside' joke among certain groups. 'Gator bait' entered the national conversation in 2020 amid George Floyd protests nationwide when University of Florida president Kent Fuchs issued a statement saying the university would no longer do their 'Gator bait' cheer, which involved fans doing the Gator chomp with their arms to taunt opponents.
Concern about the treatment and conditions the detainees were facing at the detention center caused several state officials to appear outside Alligator Alcatraz and demand entry last week.
Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones was among five elected state officials who attempted to enter the facility but were shut out. He will return Saturday during a scheduled visit for state legislators. Jones said he's refusing to call the site 'Alligator Alcatraz,' and questions the treatment of immigrants who are kept at the facility.
'It's baffling to me that individuals have made this a Democrat or Republican issue when we're talking about humanity and ensuring that individuals are being treated humanely,' he said. 'It has turned so political where now individuals are justifying inhumane treatment for human beings.'
Jackson said the dehumanization of one group opens the door for more harm to come to everyone.
'Silence is consent. We have to pay attention to what's happening,' she said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
House Republicans showcase they 'took action' with passage of Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
FIRST ON FOX: As the messaging battle over the GOP's sweeping domestic policy package takes center stage in the battle for the 2026 midterm elections, the House Republican campaign committee is launching its first ads since President Donald Trump signed the massive measure into law. "Republicans took action with President Trump to make America more affordable again, passing a Working Families Tax Cut, saving families thousands a year. Plus, no tax on tips and a tax cut on Social Security, benefiting workers and seniors," says the narrator in new ads from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). The ads, which will run digitally nationwide, were shared first with Fox News on Tuesday. The spots will be backed by a modest ad buy, according to officials. The Republican-controlled House and Senate, in near-party lines, two weeks ago narrowly passed the measure, known as the "one big, beautiful bill." And the president signed the bill into law during a July 4 ceremony at the White House. The Battle Over The 'Big, Beautiful Bill' Moves From Capitol Hill To The Campaign Trail The measure is stuffed full of Trump's 2024 campaign trail promises and second-term priorities on tax cuts, immigration, defense, energy and the debt limit. Read On The Fox News App It includes extending the president's signature 2017 tax cuts and eliminating taxes on tips and overtime pay. By making his first-term tax rates permanent — they were set to expire later this year — the bill will cut taxes by nearly $4.4 trillion over the next decade, according to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Political Fight Over 'Big Beautiful Bill' Is Front-and-center In Key Senate Race The measure also provides billions for border security and codifies the president's controversial immigration crackdown. And the new law also restructures Medicaid — the almost 60-year-old federal program that provides health coverage to roughly 71 million low-income Americans. The changes to Medicaid, as well as cuts to food stamps, another one of the nation's major safety net programs, were drafted in part as an offset to pay for extending Trump's tax cuts. The measure includes a slew of new rules and regulations, including work requirements for many of those seeking Medicaid coverage. The $3.4 trillion legislative package is also projected to surge the national debt by $4 trillion over the next decade. What's Actually In Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Democrats for months have repeatedly blasted Republicans over the social safety net changes. "BREAKING: House Republicans vote to kick 17 million people off health care," the headline in an email from the Democratic National Committee to supporters emphasized moments after the bill passed the House earlier this month. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries charged that "extreme House Republicans just approved the largest cut to Medicaid and food assistance in American history to fund tax breaks for their billionaire donors." And Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) chair Rep. Suzan DelBene pledged that "the DCCC will make sure every battleground voter knows how vulnerable House Republicans abandoned them by passing the most unpopular piece of legislation in modern American history, and we're going to take back the House majority because of it." Democrats spotlighted a slew of national polls conducted last month, before the measure was passed into law, that indicate the bill's popularity in negative territory. But Republicans have also been going on offense, targeting Democrats for voting against tax cuts. "Republicans are delivering real relief while Democrats deliver excuses. President Trump and House Republicans are cutting taxes, lowering costs, and putting working families first, just like we did before, and just like we'll do again," NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella told Fox News in a statement on Tuesday. And NRCC chair Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, in an opinion piece published earlier this month, charged that House Democrats "rejected common sense" by voting against the bill. "And we will make sure each one of them has to answer for it," he vowed, as he pointed to next year's congressional elections, when the GOP will be defending its razor-thin majority in the article source: House Republicans showcase they 'took action' with passage of Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
Washington Post
13 minutes ago
- Washington Post
France holds Bastille Day military parade that, years ago, inspired Trump
PARIS — The City of Light decked itself out in red, white and blue on Bastille Day for the yearly military parade and fireworks show that commemorates the French Revolution and the history of the Republic — and which inspired President Donald Trump to stage his own military procession. About 7,000 people, plus 200 horses, marched down the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Monday as more than 100 aircraft flew overhead in an elaborate display of France's military strength, global alliances and strategic priorities.
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Democrats say Biden needs to quit taking GOP bait
Democrats are slamming former President Biden's response to a series of investigations of him by Republicans on Capitol Hill and the Trump administration, arguing he is again taking the GOP bait to the detriment of his own party. At a time when Democrats have sought to go on offense over President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' and the MAGA World furor over the Jeffrey Epstein controversy, party operatives are scratching their heads at Biden's need to insert himself into the conversation — not to mention his defensive rhetoric. They say Biden is again helping Republicans with his actions, though they say there are ways for him to engage without interfering in the party's strategy. 'If he's able to go out and be a spokesperson on the issues that matter to him, if he wants to go talk about Medicaid, if he wants to go and offensively talk about that or other pressing issues, I think that makes sense and that does the work,' said one Democratic strategist. 'But I don't think you have that conversation on Donald Trump's terms. I don't see the logic on what the Biden inner circle is thinking here.' 'You'd have to question a lot of his PR decisions over the last two years,' the strategist added, arguing Biden and his aides did too little to sell his accomplishments in office. 'The selling of his presidency falls short, and this falls short,' the strategist said. One Democratic consultant, asked about the weekend interview, was blunt: 'He is adding nothing. Not a thing. And at this point, he's making it worse.' Since Biden left office in January, Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated with the former president as he has taken up oxygen with a string of public remarks and appearances. In May interviews on the BBC and 'The View,' Biden shifted the focus away from the party's rebuilding effort, some Democrats argue. Biden sat for an interview with The New York Times last Thursday, responding to allegations made against him in the investigation of his use of an autopen to sign pardons. Republicans have levied Biden's use of the autopen to bolster their narrative that Biden's aides were running his administration. The Democrats critical of Biden's latest interview say the subject was tangential, at best, to the national discourse. And they say that the autopen investigation will have no bearing on voters in the 2026 midterms. 'Democrats need to be on the offensive, and we cannot be running a rear guard operation to defend the Biden administration,' said Democratic strategist Garry South. 'It's not a helpful factor for him to reemerge publicly at this point, particularly in terms of … defending his administration.' 'There is still a lot of disappointment, if not downright anger, that he decided to run again and left the party in the position of having to switch horses midstream in last year's election, leading to the second term for Donald Trump,' South added. Enthusiasm within the Democratic Party continues to wane in the wake of a devastating loss in 2025, a new poll by the Democratic super PAC Unite the Country revealed. Voters view Democrats as 'weak,' 'woke' and 'out of touch,' the same poll showed, and there is a prevailing perception of the party as weak. At a fundraiser in New Jersey on Friday, former President Obama criticized the party's feeble strategy and urged Democrats to take a different approach in countering Trump. ''I think it's going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions,' Obama said. 'And it's going to require Democrats to just toughen up.'' A few Democrats said Biden's interview would hardly hurt the party. 'Trump's approvals are going down pretty precipitously. I don't think that Biden talking to the times about autopen is going to change that,' said David Litt, a speechwriter for Obama who recently published a new book, 'It's Only Drowning,' about searching for common ground during a politically divisive moment for the nation. 'It's almost off to the side of this broader conversation that people will vote on in the midterms. … It's just kind of a niche subject, and … there are just so many bigger fish to fry in all directions,' Litt said. Litt said he could even see a short-term scenario in which Biden's response to the autopen investigation taken together with the Epstein controversy helps Democrats and hurts Trump. Trump's 'willingness to go down any rabbit hole … unless that rabbit hole involves Jeffrey Epstein … is going to be the story this week,' said Litt. 'And to the extent that Biden sort of highlights Trump's hypocrisy … I think that could actually turn out to be politically helpful for people who are not fans of Trump.' 'If the Republicans in Congress say, 'We're going to investigate a bombshell,' and it's not the Epstein files, people's biggest question is going to be, 'Why isn't it the Epstein files now?' From both the right and the left,' Litt added. 'So I actually think that it may coincidentally be a moment that highlights Trump's willingness to investigate everything other than Jeffrey Epstein.' Other Democrats are harsher critics of Biden's latest interview and his reemergence altogether. They acknowledge that Biden will likely hold minimal influence over the midterms but worry that his appearances drag the party back to the very moment they are trying to build back from. Party operatives also question Biden's ability to be an effective counter to Trump, saying that he propagates the perception of Democrats as a weak contrast to Republicans. 'In his diminished state, he simply can't come off as a powerful voice against Trump, even though one can sympathize with his anger at how Trump and his partisans have tried to depict him,' South said. Litt said that Biden's remarks are a bad attempt at a good strategy, one that indicates growth and a proactive posture within the party. 'A broader lesson that Democrats are learning is engaging more and earlier is better in this day and age,' said Litt. 'It used to be that Democrats would see these conspiracy theories bubble up on the internet, and they would say, 'OK, we'll just let it run its course.'' 'What you're seeing in general from Democrats, and I suspect that Biden is an example of this … is a recognition that these days, if somebody sort of right wing comments or tweets something that goes viral, it can very quickly become policy, and so you can't just let it run its course,' Litt added. 'Internet trolls are really the tail-wagging dog of a lot of Trump administration policies here.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
