The reason Elie Weisel said "no one is illegal" is because declaring people as "illegal" is an early step to creating a permission structure for mass dehumanization and genocide.
That's why it matters. We are in the business of words. Accuracy matters in the word business. Intent and context matter
That's why it matters. We are in the business of words. Accuracy matters in the word business. Intent and context matter
Reposted from
Dave Weigel
There’s a “Dems use alienating campus language” discourse going on; I think it’s basically right. College-educated America — media, boardroom, Dems — does adopt language that other people don’t use and sounds odd to them.
Years ago, the AP replaced “illegal” with “undocumented immigrants.” (1/2)
Years ago, the AP replaced “illegal” with “undocumented immigrants.” (1/2)
Comments
https://www.raceforward.org/practice/tools/drop-i-word
I’m not telling anybody else in any community how to speak (unless you’re a bigot asshole) but maybe *I like* to use more precise language- Is that okay?
Please don't make your first interaction with me a lecture based on your false assumptions about my morality. It's rude and it's off-putting af.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/kamala-harris-scandal-watchmen-1235080447/
that sounds completely accurate without the offensiveness of “illegal.”
It’s also obviously a racial slur.
I feel like this was settled, or am I old?
1) "Illegal" is absolutely and unequivocally an utterly unacceptable and loathsome way for one human being to refer to another.
2) We sometimes hurt our own cause by coming off as snooty.
The concept of "illegals" was created by Coleman Livingston Blease...an unrepentant eugenicist and white supremacist.
That fucker was basically a precursor to nazism.
People pretty much out themselves as reactionaries when they refer to asylum seekers as "illegals".
I hope Mystal joins us here too
They are not criminals.
Literally anything can be made illegal.
Dave Weigel's deliberate ignorance of this shows his desire to side with the oppressors
Republicans use semantics hard.
The Democrats hardly understand semantics.
If a kid gets it I can only assume that a lot of adults who say it just don’t care and want to dehumanize people who are trying to improve their lives.
https://colorlines.com/article/how-right-made-racism-sound-fair-and-changed-immigration-politics/
Colloquialisms are fine. Endorsing slurs because lots of people use them is not.
To be illegal is to be fair game for rounding up and concentrating into disease-ridden camps. To be stripped of one's children.
And it gets frankly weird. For some reason some insist that “illegal” encompasses asylum seekers.
That conviction was overturned and Carter carried that sense of impunity and racist vigilantism and institutionalized it within the NRA
Words matter
Plenty of folks simply say "sin papeles."
Some Latinos use "illegals" the way certain Black folks use "nigger."
This is a big problem w/r/t immigration because a lot of people think the system is very simple when really it’s ultra complicated. “Illegal” gets used to mean tons of things.
What's changed is the US position on immigration, throttling legal channels, criminalizing those who come anyway.
https://search.app?link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aclu.org%2Fissues%2Fhuman-rights%2Fhuman-rights-and-immigration&utm_campaign=aga&utm_source=agsadl1%2Csh%2Fx%2Fgs%2Fm2%2F4
Humaneness is desperately lacking. 💔
https://www.thedp.com/article/2022/11/are-your-words-still-your-own