The sticky origins of Donald Trump Jr.'s Syrians-as-poisoned-Skittles analogy

One of the Republican presidential candidate's sons provoked outrage Monday with a post comparing Syrian refugees to poisoned candy. But memes like that predate the Trump campaign, and originally had nothing to do with immigration. Here's a primer

What Donald Trump Jr. said

Donald Trump Jr. caused a stir on Monday after supporting his father's stand on Syrian refugees by likening them to a bowl of Skittles with a few poisonous ones mixed in.

The elder Trump has called for a moratorium on accepting Syrian refugees and recommends "extreme" vetting of would-be immigrants, particularly Muslims, by subjecting them to an ideological test before allowing entry into the United States. Mr. Trump has accused his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, of advocating acceptance of tens of thousands more refugees.

As it turned out, though, the picture of a bowl of Skittles that Mr. Trump tweeted was taken by a former refugee: British citizen David Kittos, a Greek Cypriot who fled the conflict in Cyprus as a child in the 1970s. Mr. Kittos told the BBC that he had not put the image up for sale and Mr. Trump used it without his permission:

Where the meme comes from

The analogy seems to be descended from a meme from 2014, when Elliot Rodger's deadly armed rampage at a California university campus – which he described as an act of revenge against women – prompted soul-searching about misogyny and violence under the hashtags #notallmen and #yesallwomen. A post by comedian Benjamin Grelle challenged men's rights activists by comparing violent men to M&Ms:

Some online conservatives began to substitute "men" for Syrians, Muslims or refugees to use the meme in anti-immigration arguments. A notable example was Mike Huckabee, one of Donald Trump's former rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, who used it to describe Syrian refugees in an interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe program in November, 2015. (His snack of choice was peanuts.)

Mr. Trump wasn't even the first U.S. conservative to use Skittles for the meme: Talk-radio host and former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh took credit for using it last month, right down to the specific number of poisoned candies.

The memes are all roughly modern variations on the idea of a "bad apple" tainting its neighbours in the barrel by association, a metaphor with very old roots in the English language. Chaucer used it in The Cook's Tale in the 14th century:

The phrase has been an American political idiom since the 18th century when Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack rendered it as:

How social media responded

Donald Trump Jr.'s Skittles analogy prompted many social-media users to share photos of Syrian refugees, questioning the wisdom of comparing them with poisoned snacks.

As for Skittles itself, the Hollywood Reporter's Seth Abramovitch cited a vice-president at candy maker Wrigley saying they would avoid commenting on the controversy, lest it be misinterpreted as marketing.

With a report from Associated Press

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