New York Governor Actually Says He's a Muslim Woman During News Conference
When Tina Turner sang “I’m Every Woman,” she didn’t mean it literally and she wasn’t addressing it specifically to Andrew Cuomo, New York’s Democrat governor.
Don’t tell him that, though, because according to what Cuomo said back in 2017, he’s a Muslim/Jewish/Black woman with a disability looking to control her body. Because he’s New York.
If that paragraph doesn’t make sense to you, let me assure you it only becomes slightly more coherent when it’s put into context. This all comes from Cuomo deciding to take to the podium during a news conference to decry bigotry.
Finally. It’s high time someone had the courage to stand up to discriminating against people for absolutely no reason. I mean, Richard Spencer’s acolytes are growing so fast they collectively could fit in one of the decrepit trailer homes they no doubt live in.
“As New Yorkers, we are especially aware of issues of diversity,” Cuomo said at the Jan., 2017 news conference. “We are aware of issues of intolerance because we are 18 million people from countries across the globe.”
“We are probably the most diverse state on the globe,” he continued, apparently forgetting that most other countries aren’t considered states in the same way that New York is considered a state.
“It is the essence of who we are,” he continued. “And we have no tolerance for intolerance.”
While that perhaps raises issues of what “intolerance” consists of in the mind of one Andrew Cuomo, nothing he’s said thus far is terribly controversial or outré. Then things took a turn.
As a New Yorker, I am a Muslim. I am a Jew. I am Black. I am gay. I am a woman seeking to control her body. We are one New York. pic.twitter.com/peOL9x2ltl
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) January 29, 2017
“As a New Yorker, I am a Muslim. As a New Yorker, I am Jewish. As a New Yorker, I am black. I am gay. I am disabled. I am a woman seeking to control her health and her choices,” he continued. “Because as a New Yorker, we are one community.”
Yes, I get what Andrew Cuomo is trying to say. It’s profoundly insipid for so, so many reasons.
Let’s start with the fact that, unless I don’t know about his bedroom habits (which, in fairness, is no business of yours or mine), he is none of these things.
Secondly, for someone who thinks he sounds so smart, perhaps he ought to realize several of those categories are mutually exclusive from one another. One cannot be a Muslim and a Jew, as a millennia of religious tradition and almost 70 years of fighting in the Middle East has made very clear. Islam and certain sects of Judaism, it may be noted, take an exceptionally dim view of the LGBT community.
And then there’s the motto of the United States: E Pluribus Unum. Since Gov. Cuomo can’t figure out he’s not a disabled Muslim woman looking to abort a baby, I’ll translate it for him: out of many, one. We may be an immigrant nation, but our strength comes from coming together as Americans.
Yes, we have differences, and we can celebrate them. This all being said, the point is to come together as Americans — not assimilate as the Borg, say, but to recognize that our primary identity is as Americans. This was a powerful opportunity for Gov. Cuomo to make that point, and he completely whiffed on it.
On the other hand, Cuomo can keep getting elected as long as he wants, really. Which is a shame, because we have to listen to this drivel (and worse) for another four years.
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