Mike Huckabee with a superimposed image of his Cinco de Mayo tweet

Photo via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA) Remix by Samantha Grasso

Internet roasts Mike Huckabee’s try-hard, racist Cinco de Mayo tweet

This might be worse than Trump's tweet last year on the historical holiday.

Photo of Samantha Grasso 

Samantha Grasso

Internet Culture

Posted on May 5, 2017   Updated on May 24, 2021, 3:24 pm CDT

 

Looks like some of President Donald Trump‘s tactics are finally being embraced by establishment Republicans.

And by “tactics,” we mean Trump’s problematic early-morning tweeting, and by “establishment Republicans” we mean bluegrass-loving, Fox News-hosting, presidential-wannabe former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Up hours before the cock’s first crow, Huckabee wished the internet a festive Cinco de Mayo by tweeting out his off-putting plans to cinco de drinko down a jar of “hot” salsa, watch cartoons of the Mexican mouse Speedy Gonzales, and speak Spanish all the livelong day.

The tweet, for one, obviously points toward racist stereotypes of Mexicans and Mexican Americans, but is also completely confusing. Does he think drinking salsa and watching Speedy Gonzales are things people would actively choose to say to purposely be offensive?

These examples are so contrived, it’s almost like Huckabee’s day plans are a parody of what liberals would say to make fun of racists. Or perhaps Huckabee wasn’t “trying” to be racist at all, and simply wanted to make fun of “other people” who would do something like this on Cinco de Mayo, but definitely not him, the guy who tweeted it?

Regardless of Huckabee’s intent, this tweet is Certifiably Bad, and the internet didn’t shy away from roasting the former two-time presidential candidate with a brand of salsa so hot that even his non-Spanish-speaking tongue could handle it.

https://twitter.com/imillhiser/status/860515519753007108

https://twitter.com/jpbrammer/status/860515252315860992

https://twitter.com/Dr_Robuttnik/status/860498108945453056

Other tweeters pointed to just how problematic Huckabee’s sentiment rang. He’s proposing that Americans such as himself celebrate the Mexican Army’s historic victory over the French by acting as parodies of Mexicans and guzzling fake Mexican food while watching an offensive cartoon depiction of Mexicans, and speaking Spanish, because supposedly that’s (a) a bad thing, and (b) the only language Mexicans and Mexican Americans know how to communicate in.

https://twitter.com/jesseberney/status/860514713947570176

Several Twitter users strangely connected Huckabee’s bad Cinco de Mayo suggestion to his adult son David, who in 2008 was accused of taking part in the stoning and hanging death of a stray dog as a Boy Scout camp counselor in 1998. Huckabee denied the allegations at the time.

https://twitter.com/DrGMLaTulippe/status/860515250574999552

Congrats, Huckabee. You’ve seemed to out-offend your commander-in-chief’s taco bowl tweet from last year, with a jab that makes absolutely no sense but was clearly still meant to make a mockery of Cinco de Mayo.

At least the rest of us can take solace in the fact that your sad salsa shake will do quite the number on your digestive tract.

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*First Published: May 5, 2017, 1:06 pm CDT

Samantha Grasso

Samantha Grasso is a former IRL staff writer for the Daily Dot with a reporting emphasis on immigration. Her work has appeared on AJ+, Vox, Splinter, Los Angeles Magazine, and Austin Monthly.

Samantha Grasso