Quote · The Bulwark Podcast
Jane Coaston: POTUS's Racism Notches Another Win
Where this was said
Megyn Kelly Tells Haitians to Go Home
At 10:36 · chapter starts 8:50
Tim Miller plays audio of Megyn Kelly telling Haitian immigrants that Americans 'filled this country with our work ethic and our culture and our values' and that the immigrants' presence 'only dilutes it.' Kelly's rant includes the claim that Springfield, Ohio residents are being killed by drunk-driving Haitians — a community she has never visited and whose information she receives only from already-outraged listeners of her own show. Jane Coaston introduces the concept of 'vice signaling': the performative display of cruelty to signal authenticity to an audience that wants to hear it, a financially rational act for Kelly regardless of its accuracy. Coaston notes Kelly was a radically different, softer on-air personality when working for NBC — evidence the persona is strategic. Tim Miller goes further, arguing Kelly has built nothing culturally and has only worked to tear the country apart. [1] — Tim Miller "You didn't build shit. She has not built any lasting cultural touchdown. She's added nothing to the culture. All she's trying to do is rip …" 14:13 He counters the 'we built this' claim by pointing to New Orleans Creole culture as proof of deep Haitian contribution to America, invoking Bess Scott, Blake Griffin, and Pierre Toussaint. The hosts land on 'stolen white people valor' as the defining concept for this kind of identity inflation.
Many of the Haitian TPS holders have been in the US for approximately 16 years, having arrived following the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Megyn Kelly told Haitian immigrants to 'go back to fucking Haiti' on her show, claiming Americans don't drunk drive and that Haitians dilute the culture. This isn't commentary — it's a profitable performance for an audience that wants to hear it.
Conservative media ran wall-to-wall coverage of World Cup fans getting along across nationalities — including Haitian-American fans dancing with Scottish supporters — while simultaneously cheering mass deportations of Haitian TPS holders. The contradiction ran on the same shows in the same week.