JONATHAN CHAIT OCTOBER 6, 2010
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Per Think Progress, two Republican Senate candidates, David Vitter and Sharron Angle, are using this image in political advertisements to depict illegal aliens:
What I can't help wondering is, who are these guys? I doubt they're actually illegal aliens, because then of course the ad-maker who's decrying illegal immigration would also be using illegal immigrants. It's pretty clearly a staged photo. Don't you wonder what the models were told? "Okay, the pose is good -- You in the middle, maybe turn that baseball cap around? Good! -- but your facial expression needs to convey more contempt for the law. What is this photo being used for? Uh, good question. I'll get back to you on that."
If the economy doesn't turn around, modeling shoots for anti-immigration ads is going to be a boom job market for young Latino males.
4 comments
Jonathan, fyi, the use of the term "illegal alien" is like using the n-word. It is incredibly offensive. As you know, in this country, people who are accused of coming into this country illegally have not been found guilty in a court of law. They are entitled to the presumption of innocence. The use of the term "illegal alien" robs these people of their rights. Please delete your use of the term "illegal alien."
- jimbomoron
October 6, 2010 at 7:19pm
There are actually illegal aliens, jim. Your post is very strange. Jonathan's use of the term robs no one of his or her rights. There are none of the other term you use, only in the minds of racists. So your comparison does not hold at all. This is the kind of pc that just drives me around the bend.
- liberal reformer
October 6, 2010 at 7:48pm
Jim, you are confused. The presumption of innocence applies to an individual accused. But it doesn't apply to an entire class of people that we know clearly exists -- millions of individuals who have entered or remained in the USA in violation of our immigration laws. (As I said, whether some particular individual is a member of that class is another issue.) Do you deny that there are millions here without any legal authorization to be here? Come on. The term illegal alien has absolutely no relation to the racial slur you compare it to.
- PeteBeck
October 7, 2010 at 6:46am
Jim, you are confused. The presumption of innocence applies to an individual accused. But it doesn't apply to an entire class of people that we know clearly exists -- millions of individuals who have entered or remained in the USA in violation of our immigration laws. (As I said, whether some particular individual is a member of that class is another issue.) Do you deny that there are millions here without any legal authorization to be here? Come on. The term illegal alien has absolutely no relation to the racial slur you compare it to.
- PeteBeck
October 7, 2010 at 6:46am