Would a truly reputable national newspaper use the N-word to describe African-Americans and say it is just "company policy?"
I doubt it. But that the USA Today has done something similar.
On December 15, USA Today ran an article titled “Groups try to delay deportations of illegal students," ((http://j.mp/5S9wMe) in which they called young immigrant students in the United States “illegal students.”
USA Today reporter, Emily Bazar (ebazar@usatoday.com), says she is just following company policy when she labels young immigrants without papers as “illegal students." See the email where she justifies her actions: http://www.dreamactivist.org/wp-cont...milyisdumb.png
Appalling, isn't it? But she blatantly avoids the issue at hand. I get the “illegal immigrant” euphemism because that slur is familiar. But just what exactly is an "illegal student?"
No human being can be illegal. Click on the link below to tell USA Today to stop competing with the archaic immigration system and drop the use of the word ‘illegal’ http://www.change.org/actions/view/a...legal_students
After Emily Bazar implicated that the use of "illegal immigrant" came from a webcast with representatives from NumbersUSA and National Council of La Raza, Lisa Navarette from NCLR came on record within a few hours to say that "'Illegal student" is not only wrong on substance and grammar grounds, it is just plain laziness on the part of people who purport to adhere to journalistic standards [...] We would never purport to tell anyone what to call themselves or define their identity for them."
I am asking you to stand up with me. Don't be afraid and do not let anyone label you, your family, friends, students and an entire community of disenfranchised people as "illegal."
Sign the petition directed at USA Today and spread the word
http://www.change.org/actions/view/a...legal_students
If you need more details, our blog post on this issue is here: http://dreamactivist.org/usatodayfail
If you can write about this on your own blog, copy-paste this to your contacts or make calls to the following people, that would be great as well:
Heidi Zimmerman
Director/Communications
7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA 22108
(703) 854-5304
hzimmerman@usatoday.com
Alex Nicholson
Manager/Communications
7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA 22108
703-854-5872
anicholson@usatoday.com
Don't you have things to say? I mean, something that's not about immigration and why it sucks to be illegal?
ReplyDeletewhat did you do while you were "on vacation"?
Unfortunately i cant write about my womanizing stories like you Juan. Purpose of this blog is to bring attention to the "undocumented" Narrative. Not to tell the world how many chicks i banged, or to quote paragraphs from "how to pick up girls'.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, Patience young one, i will write about somewhat more interesting things soon.
Illegal should not be used as a noun!
ReplyDeleteLisa Navarette’s USAtoday letter of 12/23 rightly deplores ungrammatical use of the word “Illegal”. We need to replace it with a noun that properly describes Illegal Aliens, a.k.a. Illegal “Immigrants”. The thesaurus on my computer suggests replacing Illegal with Unlawful, Illegitimate, Illicit, Dishonest, Criminal, or Fraudulent. Derived from this list, appropriate nouns for Illegal Aliens would be Criminals or Frauds. But, while both of these terms are applicable, they seem too broad. Further thesaurus searches, this time on the nouns Criminal and Fraud, produce the terms Impostor, Intruder, Trespasser, Invader, Raider, Marauder, Looter, or Plunderer. While the first four of these nouns clearly apply to all who enter the USA illegally, the rest should be reserved for those who come here illegally with the intent of sending back to their “real” homes money earned in the USA – money that would be used by legitimate immigrants to support the USA through proper payments of taxes, health care, schooling costs, and all the other expenses that the rest of us make as citizens.
Instead of Illegal, let’s agree to use Trespasser to describe those who come to the US illegally with the intent of making their home here. We can reserve Marauder for those who come merely to plunder our country.
ay anonymous... thanks for the tired rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteBTW look up trade deficits, exporting figures of US goods, and the USAs biggest trading partners, and then tell me where these "plundered" dollars go.
that was just the top off my head cause its midnight and im tired.
signed
youre Trespasser, criminal and any other noun you would like to use to de humanize me
oh yeah and speaking of plundering, funny how the world works huh...iraq war, oil reserves...
ReplyDelete