Musician John Legend attacked President Donald Trump Thursday for referring to violent MS-13 gang members as “animals,” saying that it is “much more honest and challenging to realize they were all babies once.”
Reflecting on the news of the day from the hospital with his newborn son, Legend argued that heinous actions did not change the fact that even the worst offenders MS-13 had to offer were still human. (RELATED: John Legend Makes Racist Claims Against Trump Following Leaked ‘S***hole’ Comment)
Even human beings who commit heinous acts are the same species as us, not “animals”. I’m in the hospital with our new son. Any of these babies here could end up committing terrible crimes in the future. It’s easy, once they’ve done so, to distance ourselves from their humanity
— John Legend (@johnlegend) May 18, 2018
Legend challenged others to consider what drove gang members to violence rather than simply condemning them.
But it’s much more honest and challenging to realize they were all babies once and think about what in society, their home life, etc took them from baby to violent gang member. And then to think about collective action we could take to mitigate these conditions
— John Legend (@johnlegend) May 18, 2018
He went on to blame the United States, suggesting that American policy was in some way responsible for the rise of MS-13.
And we should particularly interrogate the role of American policy in helping to make MS-13 the organization it is now.
— John Legend (@johnlegend) May 18, 2018
Legend’s concluded that even allowing the most brutal gang members to be called “animals” would open the door for those who wanted to further oppress them and others.
Dehumanizing large groups of people is the demagogue’s precursor to visiting violence and pain upon them. It makes it easier to destroy their families and much worse.
— John Legend (@johnlegend) May 18, 2018
Legend has apparently reversed his position on “dehumanizing large groups of people” since September of 2017, when the performer held a casting call for “out of shape” white actors to play Trump supporters in a video.