Controversial journalist Jemele Hill is routinely critical of President Trump and the United States in general but took things further than her usual critiques on Sunday evening when she claimed the country is “nearly as bad as Nazi Germany.”
Fox News reports the line “caused waves of shock on Twitter” from people across the political spectrum, friends and critics alike.
“Been reading Isabel Wilkerson’s new book, ‘Caste,’ and if you were of the opinion that the United States wasn’t nearly as bad as Nazi Germany, how wrong you are,” Hill tweeted. “Can’t encourage you enough to read this masterpiece.”
Check it out:
Been reading Isabel Wilkerson’s new book, “Caste,” and if you were of the opinion that the United States wasn’t nearly as bad as Nazi Germany, how wrong you are. Can’t encourage you enough to read this masterpiece.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) August 23, 2020
She immediately tried to backpedal the line, clarifying that she did not think “the current state of America is like Nazi Germany.”
“I was referring specifically to our racial history. The parallels have been pointed out by plenty of historians, not just Isabel Wilkerson,” she continued, responding to criticism from comedian Tim Young.
Nowhere in my tweet did I say the current state of America is like Nazi Germany. I was referring specifically to our racial history. The parallels have been pointed out by plenty of historians, not just Isabel Wilkerson. You tell me to grow up. I say, you need to read more.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) August 24, 2020
Hill, who BizPac Review reports was fired from ESPN after she called President Trump a “white supremacist” on Twitter in 2017, seemed to double down in her response to Arc Digital Editor-in-Chief Berny Belvedere.
What would you call it when a country that murdered millions of Jews learned their systems of genocide by watching America, and studying our history of racialized slavery, and great knack for racial terrorism?
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) August 24, 2020
Others piled on the tweet, pointing out just how bizarre and ludicrous the statement is.
The children small enough to be thrown into the ovens at Mauthausen were incinerated alive to save the disruption they might cause being herded into the gas chamber. You’re a raging, ignorant fool. https://t.co/4t2VrzZLo7
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) August 24, 2020
— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) August 24, 2020
jemele hill can't apologize so she's just gonna double down. gonna be dope
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) August 23, 2020
Jemele Hill thinks Nazi Germany and the United States of America are comparable.
Imagine living in this kind of delusional fantasyland. pic.twitter.com/prpk6RpGD2
— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) August 23, 2020
As someone whose family lived (and some not) through both Nazi and Communist regimes this is absolutely disgusting and @jemelehill, if you spent one month in a real authoritarian state you would come crying back here to kiss the ground you walked on in the USA. https://t.co/5fVgMQguzp
— Inez Stepman (@InezFeltscher) August 23, 2020
By the way, Jemele makes a living insulting the country and the president. If we were under Nazi rule, you couldn’t make a living doing that. Nor could you continue living while doing that.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) August 24, 2020
Every week Jemele Hill gets dumber. https://t.co/YTqqw2FA1F
— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) August 23, 2020
.@jemelehill is very high IQ — Said no one ever.
but this is NEXT level dumb. She should def take a break from Twitter. https://t.co/QcKEbBIVad
— Stephanie Hamill (@STEPHMHAMILL) August 23, 2020
Concerning the book in question, Fox News reports Oprah Winfrey recently announced it as her latest book club pick.
The report adds:
The 59-year-old Wilkerson is an author and journalist who won the National Book Critics Circle award in 2011 for her previous book, “The Warmth of Other Suns,” about the Black migration from the South in the early 20th century.
In “Caste,” she looks at American history and the treatment of Blacks and finds what she calls an enduring, unseen and unmentioned caste system — not unlike those in India or Nazi Germany — that has yet to be fully confronted.
“You cannot solve a problem unless you identify it and define it,” Wilkerson told The Associated Press, adding that Winfrey’s endorsement means “many more people who have not learned about this will have the chance to read about something that deeply affects us all.”