Ellen DeGeneres chose to “not get political” this week by using the Pixar film, Finding Dory (DeGeneres was the voice for Dory in the movie), to create an analogy of Donald Trump’s recent executive order on banning immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. Her performance was a terrible flop, but nonetheless, her fans claim she used it to “completely destroy Trump’s immigration ban.”
Here’s what she did: she told the seemingly heartbreaking tale of Dory, a Australian wandering fish whose parents live in America, and who is barred from entering America because of a huge wall that is meant to keep her and her friends out.
“And you won’t believe it, but that wall has almost no effect in keeping them out,” she added as her audience was instructed to cheer hysterically.
She continued by describing the friends Dory met in America during the time she was separated from her family.
“They help [Dory] even though they’re completely different colors,” she said. “Because that’s what you do when you see someone in need — you help them.”
Again, DeGeneres’ audience cheered, and the camera focused on several sad faces in the audience whose expressions said what they were all thinking: how could America separate poor Dory from her family, simply because of her background?
The problem with this one-sided commentary is it demonizes all semblance of law enforcement and national security measures in this country. That is dangerous, because we need those things. Of course police officers were not hired to shoot black men on the basis of their skin tones. Of course the border patrol was not invented to torture and harass Hispanic people and their families. Of course the DHS isn’t diddling around, waiting for ways to incite regimes of Muslim-majority countries and make terrorists “look bad.” That would be unnecessary, and an epic waste of time and money.
Perhaps if DeGeneres’ narrative mentioned how Dory’s fellow fish were plotting against the U.S. and infiltrating its borders with poison-squirting terrorist fish, the audience’s reaction would be different. But of course, it’s never profitable or popular to bring the hammer down and vow to do whatever it takes to preserve national security and justice, even when there are so many casualties at stake.
One man has taken up the challenge, unlike any of his recent predecessors, and however cut-throat his performance may seem, he is taking the tougher road. We owe him recognition for that at the very least.
