Justice

George Takei Just Responded to Donald Trump's Latest Racist Comments

November 24th 2015

In an interview with Huffpost Live, actor and activist George Takei responded to the latest Muslim and Syrian refugee comments made by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The actor sat down with the Huffington Post to promote his new Broadway play alongside co-star Telly Leung when the topic of discussion turned to Trump's comments. Trump stirred up controversy on Friday for proposing a database tracking system for Muslims and for expressing support for all U.S. Muslims to register.

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As someone who who grew up in two Japanese internment camps during World War II, Takei referred to Trump's proposal as having a "Nazi echo."

"The Jews had to wear that Star of David." Takei said. "And Donald Trump is saying that all Syrians have to carry an ID card, and they can--without warrant--go into any Syrian's home or mosque."

Takei also compared Trump's apparent prejudice of refugees and Muslims to the prejudice that led to the horrific treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Interned Japanese Americans outside at Manzanar Internment CampWikimedia Commons/Department of the Interior, War Relocation Authority - wikimedia.org

Related: George Takei's Response to the Refugee Backlash is Worth Your Applause

Takei explains:

"In the 80s Congress wanted to reexamine the internment of Japanese Americans and I testified at that congressional commission. And they found that there were three items that was the cause of it: one, was racial prejudice; two, was war hysteria; and number three, was lack of political leadership...It is shocking that the reasons that put us in internment camps is alive today."

This is not the first time that the actor has came down harshly on anti-refugee sentiments. On Sunday, in an interview with MSNBC, Takei criticized recent comments made by the mayor of Roanoke, Vigirina, David Bowers (D) when the mayor called for the suspension all Syrian refugees and referenced the WWII Japanese internment camps as an effective way to deal with refugees.

During the interview Takei harkened back to those remarks.

"I mean as I said, the congressional commission found that those three items: racial prejudice, war hysteria and lack of political leadership was reason for that is alive and well today as amazing as it may sound." Takei said. "Mayor bowers is a perfect example of that. He's ignorant of American history. He's ignorant of the responsibililty of political leadership."

Related: Viriginia Mayor Shows How NOT to Respond to the Refugee Crisis

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