WHOA! Did Jill Biden Just Speak In Front Of A GIANT NAZI FLAG?

Social media users speculated that First Lady Jill Biden stood in front of a flag that resembled a “giant Nazi eagle” during a speech on Wednesday to mark Cesar Chavez Day. The flag they meant was the United Farm Workers (UFW) union flag. The UFW, which was founded in 1962, is the country’s first permanent agricultural labor union.

Biden travelled to a pop-up vaccination site for farmworkers to speak at an event hosted by the United Farm Workers union. According to the New York Times. The occasion was César Chávez Day — the birthday of the Hispanic labor organizer who founded the group that would eventually become the UFW.

This was originally touted as a success. The pull quotes from publications like The Times were favourable.

Biden told roughly 100 farmworkers and local politicians at the event, “we depended on those who kept going to work every single day.”

“Without the farmworkers who kept harvesting our food, or the factory workers who packaged it, the grocery store clerks who stocked shelves, no one would have made it through this year.”

The location is now a vaccination site and she urged farmworkers to receive the COVID-19 shot.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, farmworkers and volunteers joined Biden to celebrate the state holiday honouring the UFW leader, César Chávez, who died in 1993. During her visit, Biden gave a speech with the UFW flag as the backdrop. Multiple social media users falsely accused Biden of making a speech in front of a Nazi flag.

“I don’t know if there are words to fully convey how hilarious it is that ‘Dr’ Jill Biden butchered the Spanish language while giving a speech in front of a Nazi flag,” said one Twitter user.
Lauren Araiza, an associate professor who teaches history at Denison University, called the effort to draw similarities between the eagle used on the UFW flag and the one associated with the Nazis “ridiculous.”

“It’s based on the Aztec Eagle, and they made it stylized in that way because they wanted a graphic that anybody could draw and then it would be easily printable,” said Araiza, author of the book, “To March for Others: The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers.”

According to her the eagle on the red and black flag was something Mexican Americans could easily relate to.

The flag was created in the 1960s by Chávez’s brother, Richard Chávez, and his cousin, Manuel Chávez.
It is said that the group has no Nazi or even national socialist ties, and the flag was reportedly designed by Chavez’s cousin. However, many users saw some striking similarities to flags employed by the Third Reich.

Immigration policy: “As president, Joe is fighting for people who often go unseen,” she said. “And that’s exactly the kind of immigration policy he’s working to build — one that treats children and families with dignity and creates fair pathways to citizenship, including for essential workers.”
“We are a union couple,” Biden told them.

What they didn’t report on were the problems. First, the slogan of the UFW is “Sí, Se Puede” — roughly translated as “Yes, We Can.” Next time, Jill, stick to the translation:

Almost! pic.twitter.com/ZW8PYVlqYn

— Alexei Koseff (@akoseff) March 31, 2021

Social media users speculated that First Lady Jill Biden stood in front of a flag that resembled a “giant Nazi eagle” during a speech on Wednesday to mark Cesar Chavez Day. The flag they meant was the United Farm Workers (UFW) union flag. The UFW, which was founded in 1962, is the country’s first permanent agricultural labor union.

Biden travelled to a pop-up vaccination site for farmworkers to speak at an event hosted by the United Farm Workers union. According to the New York Times. The occasion was César Chávez Day — the birthday of the Hispanic labor organizer who founded the group that would eventually become the UFW.

This was originally touted as a success. The pull quotes from publications like The Times were favourable.

Biden told roughly 100 farmworkers and local politicians at the event, “we depended on those who kept going to work every single day.”

“Without the farmworkers who kept harvesting our food, or the factory workers who packaged it, the grocery store clerks who stocked shelves, no one would have made it through this year.”

The location is now a vaccination site and she urged farmworkers to receive the COVID-19 shot.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, farmworkers and volunteers joined Biden to celebrate the state holiday honouring the UFW leader, César Chávez, who died in 1993. During her visit, Biden gave a speech with the UFW flag as the backdrop. Multiple social media users falsely accused Biden of making a speech in front of a Nazi flag.

“I don’t know if there are words to fully convey how hilarious it is that ‘Dr’ Jill Biden butchered the Spanish language while giving a speech in front of a Nazi flag,” said one Twitter user.
Lauren Araiza, an associate professor who teaches history at Denison University, called the effort to draw similarities between the eagle used on the UFW flag and the one associated with the Nazis “ridiculous.”

“It’s based on the Aztec Eagle, and they made it stylized in that way because they wanted a graphic that anybody could draw and then it would be easily printable,” said Araiza, author of the book, “To March for Others: The Black Freedom Struggle and the United Farm Workers.”

According to her the eagle on the red and black flag was something Mexican Americans could easily relate to.

The flag was created in the 1960s by Chávez’s brother, Richard Chávez, and his cousin, Manuel Chávez.
It is said that the group has no Nazi or even national socialist ties, and the flag was reportedly designed by Chavez’s cousin. However, many users saw some striking similarities to flags employed by the Third Reich.

Immigration policy: “As president, Joe is fighting for people who often go unseen,” she said. “And that’s exactly the kind of immigration policy he’s working to build — one that treats children and families with dignity and creates fair pathways to citizenship, including for essential workers.”
“We are a union couple,” Biden told them.

What they didn’t report on were the problems. First, the slogan of the UFW is “Sí, Se Puede” — roughly translated as “Yes, We Can.” Next time, Jill, stick to the translation:

“A symbol is an important thing. That is why we chose an Aztec eagle. It gives pride…When people see it they know it means dignity.” Quoted by the union’s website from Chávez explaining the flag’s design:
The tone of red used in the flag was inexpensive for printers, Araiza explained. In addition to red and black being eye-catching colors.

“These people are just trying to use scare tactics to delegitimize the president and first lady’s open support of the UFW and, by extension, all Mexican Americans,” Araiza said.

Gavriel D. Rosenfeld, a professor of history at Fairfield University, who specializes in the history of Nazi Germany, also knocked down the claims.

“One source of subtle confusion may be the fact that many Nazi flags featured an eagle with a swastika, the latter being a very geometric shape; the UFW flag also features a very geometrically rendered Aztec-style eagle that could evoke the geometric aspects of a swastika,” Rosenfeld said in an email. “But of course, there’s no swastika on the UFW whatsoever.”

This is part of The Associated Press’ ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.

Sources: FORBES, THE WESTERN JOURNAL, AP NEWS