“If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?”
Kelly Osbourne’s open question on a recent episode of The View led co-host Rosie Perez to remark that “Latinos are not the only people doing that.”
“No, I didn’t mean it like that!” Osbourne clarified. “Come on! I would never mean it like that.”
Osbourne’s question was clearly not the best choice of words. What she should’ve asked was who was going to clean not just Trump’s commode but also wash dishes at the restaurants he frequents, pick the fruits that he eats, and, let’s see, what other stereotypically Latino jobs can we name?
There’s nothing racist in asking this question. Yes, of course, you can find Latinos in every field, be they filled with grapes or white collars. But you know and I know that Latinos make up a higher percentage of one of these. And you know which one.
In 2011, Hispanics comprised 15 percent of the total workforce, but only 7 percent of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) workers. Likewise, Latinos are more likely than their lighter-skin counterparts to work in jobs that require manual labor and that pay less. All of which means that you’re more likely to find a Latina than a white female cleaning your toilet at a Best Western or the Trump International Hotel & Tower. But again, if you’ve stayed at hotels enough, you know who’s picking up your dirty towels.
Cut Osbourne some slack. In philosophy, there’s something called the “principle of charity,” which requires that when someone makes a statement, you consider its best, strongest possible interpretation. In this case, Osbourne was merely pointing out that Latinos struggle in many difficult jobs that few people, including Latinos, would want to do. The rest of us rely on their efforts to enjoy our comfortable lives. Simply put, Osbourne was acknowledging such labor and asking Trump to do the same. Her question was not steeped in bigotry. It was more of a plea for recognition.
Rather than create drama, we should instead focus on improving the lives of individuals financially forced into an “ohmigod, I would die if I had to do that job” job. In other words, we should give a crap about people who clean our crap.
Eventually, Perez apologized to Osbourne for being overly sensitive. Osbourne doesn’t deserve an apology, nor does she owe one—though she gave one anyway, concluding, “It is my hope that this situation will open up a conversation about immigration and the Latino community as a whole. By the way, I clean my own [you know what expletive goes here] toilets.”
