Americans in every section of our country, from New York to Hawaii and from Washington to Puerto Rico, wonder why the president of the United States is dragging his heels and attacking Puerto Rico instead of rushing aid in the wake of Hurricane Maria’s devastation to the island. Now, most of us realize that this is because Donald Trump is a racist, and Puerto Ricans look like Mexicans to him and his base—so, it’s clearly their fault and their problem. It’s almost as if Donald Trump doesn’t realize that the reason there were so many Puerto Ricans around him in New York City is because Puerto Ricans are Americans.
A new poll of 2,200 adults by Morning Consult found that only 54 percent of Americans know that people born in Puerto Rico, a commonwealth of the United States, are U.S. citizens. (Because Puerto Rico is not a state, they do not vote in presidential elections, but they send one nonvoting representative to Congress.)
This finding varied significantly by age and education. Only 37 percent of people ages 18 to 29 know people born in Puerto Rico are citizens, compared with 64 percent of those 65 or older. Similarly, 47 percent of Americans without a college degree know Puerto Ricans are Americans, compared with 72 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree and 66 percent of those with a postgraduate education.
As the New York Times points out, people’s perceptions of Puerto Rico being a commonwealth of the United States changes their opinions on whether or not we should be giving them aid at this time. Racism has always been a destructive and deadly form of ignorance. The fact that about one-half of all Americans don’t realize that Puerto Ricans aren’t a part of the “immigration issues” being fought about in the political arena right now is a prime example of why white supremacists like Donald Trump love “the poorly educated.” The real reason that Trump and company love “the poorly educated” is that “poorly educated” usually mean racists who have been sold a bag of bigoted lies.