Border Patrol posts reel featuring Michael Jackson lyrics with antisemitic slur
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A U.S. Border Patrol logo patch. Luke Johnson/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The U.S. Border Patrol shared — then later deleted — a reel on its Instagram page using lyrics from a Michael Jackson song that featured an antisemitic slur.
The big picture: Government social media pages under Trump 2.0 increasingly draw from right-wing meme pages, using racist language and xenophobic tropes to drive engagement.
Driving the news: In a post that appears to have since been taken down, agents carry large weapons and carve through the desert in Border Patrol vehicles while Jackson's "They Don't Care About Us" plays.
- The lyrics in the clip include lines that were condemned by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and other Jewish groups at the time of the song's release: "Jew me, sue me, Everybody, do me, Kick me, k*ke me, Don't you black or white me."
- In the version of the song featured on the album found on Apple Music and Spotify, the slur and word "Jew" are drowned out by sound effects. In the clip used by Border Patrol, the words were not edited out.
- The agency did not immediately respond to Axios' request Wednesday to explain why the song was chosen or why the post was seemingly deleted.
What they're saying: Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, described the post and other content shared by federal agencies as "part of a broader weaponization of the federal government to normalize bigotry and attack political enemies."
- "It would be easier to chalk this up as a mistake if the account wasn't filled with other flippant bigoted and xenophobic content," Spitalnick said in a statement provided to Axios.
- "And it goes hand-in-hand with federal agencies posting white nationalist memes or using their platforms to play politics."
Flashback: Jackson, at the time, said his song was not meant to offend and was intended to target bigots and injustice rather than victims of prejudice.
- He later edited the song to obscure the offensive lines.
Yes, but: The lines were clearly audible in the Border Patrol's social media post, which did not use the version of the song with the words edited out.
- The original Instagram reel appears to have been shared in August but is no longer visible on the Border Patrol Instagram account.
Zoom out: The ADL and other groups representing the Jewish community did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment on Border Patrol's post, though one group noted their team was unavailable due to a Jewish holiday.
Go deeper: Trump pleads ignorance after using antisemitic slur
