Former Trump University students say their school duped them into paying as much as $35,000 for its real estate seminars. So they sued and the case is currently in court.

You probably know what happened next. Last week, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump went after the judge presiding over the civil fraud lawsuits—because of his ethnicity.

“He's Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico,” said Trump, who claimed that the Indiana-born US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel faced an “absolute conflict,” in ruling on the billionaire’s case.

Trump’s words were the “textbook definition of a racist comment,” said GOP Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Trump has since suggested that his remarks were “misconstrued.”

Trump’s words were wrong, but it’s also incorrect to think that someone can do their jobs without their ethnic background coming into play, said Gabriel Salguero, the founder and president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, who joined Quick to Listen this week.

“God’s sovereign will places us into the context into which we’re born,” said Salguero. “Does that impact how we see the world? Of course it does! The Christian shouldn’t see diversity as a deficit but as a gift.”

One reason why we often see others as threats: fears of limited resources, says Alma Zaragoza-Petty, the daughter of Mexican immigrants. who recently completed her PhD in educational policy and social context at UC Irvine and who also came on Quick to Listen.

But “God’s love is abundant,” said Zaragoza-Petty.

Zaragoza-Petty and Salguero joined Morgan and Katelyn on Quick to Listen this week to talk about whether a person’s ethnicity should affect how their work and who decides who gets to be an American.

  • (6:50) Are there times when our ethnic background actually should or can influence the way we do our jobs?
  • (14:50) How do we determine who is an American, and who gets to decide that?
  • (23:20) How have you seen fears of scarcity of resources in your own community, and how have you responded to it?