Did First Lady Jill Biden really just compare Hispanics to “breakfast tacos?”
While Dr. Biden was speaking in San Antonia at the LatinX IncluXion conference. Before we even get to her quote, let’s just say that the premise of the conference is offensive to most in the Hispanic community.
The First Lady said in her speech that Hispanics were as “unique” as “breakfast tacos.” This wasn’t her only flub in that speech, she also didn’t pronounce bodega correctly, she said “bo-gah-da.”
The right has certainly had their way with the breakfast taco comment, but they are not alone.
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists didn’t find it funny at all either. They released a statement that criticized Jill Biden and her speech writers for coming up with the comparison.
NAHJ encourages @FLOTUS & her communications team to take time to better understand the complexities of our people & communities.
We are not tacos.
Our heritage as Latinos is shaped by various diasporas, cultures & food traditions.
Do not reduce us to stereotypes. pic.twitter.com/KQIq5gwsht
— NAHJ (@NAHJ) July 12, 2022
It is a bit surprising that the NAHJ put this release out. Most of them are surely Democrats, and the whole party has treated Dr. Biden with kid gloves. But this must have gone a bit too far, so that challenged the First Lady and her team to “take the time in the future to better understand” Hispanic cultures.
The bigger story here is the trouble the Biden team is having with Hispanic voters. The fact that the First Lady was even at the event is telling. But the whole thing, including the name LatinX, was all a major mistake.
Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio took notice of the first lady’s comment. He responded by changing his Twitter profile picture to an image of a taco, simply writing: “#NewProfilePic.”
#NewProfilePic pic.twitter.com/QsYqCaNOoP
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 12, 2022
And Steve Guest, an advisor to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, tweeted: “Which White House speechwriter just won a bet for getting the First Lady to say something like this?”
