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ABSTRACT
This article analyzes a 2019 poster of Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar by setting it in the context of political memes. Extending recent work on meme rhetoric, and emphasizing the roll that condensation symbols and emotional appeals play in memetic display, I argue that our understanding of political messages like the Omar poster is enhanced when they are approached as memes. Such an approach considers rhetorical texts as fragments whose appeals are emotional rather than propositional and whose success lies not in winning arguments but in generating reaction and replication.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The display was set up by Brenda Arthur, leader of the Charleston, West Virginia chapter of ACT for America. ACT for America put out a press release the day after the event denying responsibility for the poster or the display (Beck, Citation2019).
2 Video and photographs posted by the Washington Post showed the broader display surrounding the Omar poster (Rosenberg, Citation2019). Digital closeups of the Appalachian family and non-white crowd memes were found on the meme website me.me (“The poverty,” Citation2017; “Imagine if,” Citation2018).
3 Plans for the Cordoba House community center and mosque were announced in late 2009 and, redubbed the “Ground Zero Mosque” by a conservative blogger, it became the focal point of local and national protests throughout 2010 (Dehghani et al., Citation2014, p. 2).