Jill Biden's Breakfast Tacos Comment

Overview

Jill Biden's Breakfast Tacos Comment refers to a moment in which First Lady Jill Biden attempted to praise the diversity of the Latino community, saying it was "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." Following the speech in mid-July 2022, many criticized the line as offensive and cringeworthy, leading to backlash toward the Biden administration and many memes referencing the gaffe.

Background

On July 11th, 2022, Jill Biden was speaking to honor Raul Yzaguirre, the former president and CEO of Latino civil rights and advocacy organization UnidosUS.^[1] During the speech, she stated, "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." Commenters noted she also mispronounced "bodega" in her speech, saying "bogoda."

Developments

Following the speech on July 11th, 2022, Jill Biden's comments were criticized as out of touch and offensive by some viewers. The National Association of Hispanic Journalists released a statement that day urging Jill Biden to better understand the Latino community, asking her "to take the time in the future to better to better understand the complexities of our people and communities." The statement included the lines “we are not tacos” and “do not reduce us to stereotypes” (seen below).^[1]

Many Hispanic conservative politicians also publically griped about the statement on Twitter. For example, on July 13th, Texas congresswoman Mayra Flores made a joke about the statement on Twitter^[3] and encouraged "breakfast tacos" to vote Republican, receiving over 44,500 likes and 7,100 retweets in 24 hours (shown below, left). On July 11th, Florida Senator Marco Rubio briefly made his Twitter^[4] profile picture a taco in mockery of Biden's statement, receiving over 41,900 likes and 4,900 retweets in three days (shown below, right).

However, some also downplayed Jill Biden's error amid the backlash. The Los Angeles Times^[2] published a piece by Gustavo Arellano that noted how politicians have a long history of using Mexican food as a means of trying to connect with Latino voters. The piece also opined that criticism from Republicans was hypocritical and mimicked the woke culture Republicans often decry because the party has been making inroads with the Latino community in recent years. User @AnitaM86^[5] pointed out the perceived hypocrisy of Republicans by pointing out that Donald Trump had historically said derogatory things about the Latino community (shown below).

In addition to commentary about the controversy, many online also posted memes about Jill Biden's breakfast taco comment around the web, typically mocking the speech. Due to the influx of such memes, some were also covered in the media. For example, on July 12th, Twitter^[6] user MiaCathell, who posted an Is This a Pigeon meme about the blunder, reposted a segment on the news from Univision covering the memes that accumulated over 22,800 views and 190 likes in two days (shown below).

It's real 😭 My breakfast tacos/Jill Biden meme made it on Univisionpic.twitter.com/jjEKcFzjPY https://t.co/h9zIWfQ4P9

— Mia Cathell (@MiaCathell) July 12, 2022

Search Interest

External References