First Lady Jill Biden Apologizes for Ill-Conceived ‘Breakfast Taco’ Comments About Hispanic Community
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.
First Lady Jill Biden apologized for comments she made Monday in which she likened the uniqueness of the Hispanic American community to breakfast tacos.
During a Monday address at the progressive UnidosUS Annual Conference in San Antonio, Dr. Biden said, “Raul helped build this organization with the understanding that the diversity of this community — as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami, and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio — is your strength.”
To be fair, she didn’t call Hispanic American tacos, or even San Antonio breakfast tacos, but rather used it as a ham-fisted metaphor to celebrate the unique diversity within the Hispanic community. It was not well-written and even more poorly received.
Many Hispanic journalists took exception to the poorly written comment, with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists saying “we are not tacos” — though Dr. Biden clearly didn’t call Hispanic-Americans “tacos.” And because the Internet loves ridicule of people in power who say dumb things, it became a thing. A big thing, especially on the right where Senator Marco Rubio trolled the first lady by changing his Twitter avatar to the most white-bread, Gringo taco ever.
The First Lady’s Press Secretary Michael LaRosa tweeted an apology on behalf of Dr. Biden, saying “The First Lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community.”
Hopefully, for the First Lady’s office, this ends an embarrassing news cycle for Dr. Biden. And ideally this sort of massive attention will create a spike in breakfast taco purchasing in San Antonio. There are no reports yet that the Biden’s are in the pocket of “Big Taco” but the day is still young.
