Dem Rep. Tlaib: Ilhan Omar Is ‘an Easier Target’ Because She’s Black and Muslim

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said the bipartisan outrage over controversial remarks made about Israel by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was “because she’s Muslim and because she’s black, she’s an easier target for them to attack.”

Tlaib said, “I think she becomes an easier target is what I’m trying to say. I don’t understand why some others can say similar, probably things that could be said to be Antisemitic that are not being held to the same standard. That’s what I’m saying.”

She continued, “So I  just want to be able to say when we uplift people like Ilhan and others and saying we need more people like us to run for office. I realize again our mere presence being there, understanding that, for many, they have never met a Muslim before. But also probably the fact we’re women of color that are very vocal against, you know, human rights violations, especially in the country of Israel or even Saudi Arabia, that we are coming from a place of personal experiences as being people of color, with my living grandmother in the West Bank in the occupied territories, that we want to be heard and want to be seen beyond whatever these kinds of labels that people like to put on us. And I think we just become an easier target for folks. And that’s what worries me is that I don’t understand why others can say something probably worse and probably stemmed on white supremacy can get away with it.”

“But then Ilhan, who is really coming from a place of disagrees with the policies of the country of Israel, where my grandmother lives currently right now with inequality, is not treated with any human dignity— that if she speaks up, that it’s seen — and again I feel because she’s Muslim and because she’s black, she’s an easier target for them to attack and target,” Tlaib added. “And, again, I am saying this from my experience, being a member of Congress, that it is somehow embedded, I believe, in her being someone that was easier to make a so-called an example of.”

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