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Description
Drop the I Word

Why shouldn't I call undocumented immigrants "illegals"?
It's dehumanizing. the i-word is shorthand for other harmful racially charged terms that dehumanize people. The i-word promotes violence and discrimination. It sends the message that immigrants are sub-human and undeserving.
It's racially charged. Use of the i-word affects attitudes toward immigrants and non-immigrants alike, most often toward people of African, Asian, and Latin American descent. The discriminatory message is not explicit, but hidden, or racially coded.
It's inaccurate legally and confuses the debate. Immigration judges and attorneys don't use the i-word. Journalists who treat all transgressions as "alleged," - a tenet of ethical and professional journalism, don't use it either. The i-word finds many people guilty before they are tried and ignores the fact that our laws are unjustly applied. Immigrants without documents are regularly hired as cheap, exploited labor with a limited ability to protect their own rights. No one else who benefits from the set up, including the employers who recruit and hire these migrants, is labeled this way.

The i-word is used to unfairly label and scapegoat people who are out of status due to a variety of systematic circumstances. For example, many people:

are brought to the country against their will

are brought to the country by employers who often exploit them for cheap labor

Fall out of status and overstay their VISAS because of school or employment

risk being killed in their country of origin due to political beliefs, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation

are affected by natural disasters and/or other reasons beyond their control

are forced by economics and harmful policies like NAFTA to leave their country to simply provide for their families

are on a backlog waiting years to get processed, even when they are eligible to get papers through a relative. Take a look at Reason.org's illustration of America's broken immigration and naturalization system .

Watch: Drop the I-Word. No Human Being is Illegal.

Let me get these comments out of the way so you don't have to leave them for me:
"You're just a stupid liberal"
"Liberals are liars"
"Liberals are lyres"
"Propaganda! Propaganda!"
"What part of ILLEGAL don't you lefty idiots understand?!"
"The indians didn't own the land legally, I'm not an illegal immigrant, shut the hell up!"
"This is just more of that "politically correct" bullshit"
"ILLEGAILLEGALILLEGAL"
"DEY TAKIN DER JERBS!"
etc.

Sorry for the uber long description. I know I've complained about it a few times before myself. Forgive me!

BG: from the Drop the I-Word campaign website
Temp: [link]

Click here for ALL of my Stamps
Click here for Religious Stamps
Click here for Political Stamps

Description
Drop the I Word

Why shouldn't I call undocumented immigrants "illegals"?
It's dehumanizing. the i-word is shorthand for other harmful racially charged terms that dehumanize people. The i-word promotes violence and discrimination. It sends the message that immigrants are sub-human and undeserving.
It's racially charged. Use of the i-word affects attitudes toward immigrants and non-immigrants alike, most often toward people of African, Asian, and Latin American descent. The discriminatory message is not explicit, but hidden, or racially coded.
It's inaccurate legally and confuses the debate. Immigration judges and attorneys don't use the i-word. Journalists who treat all transgressions as "alleged," - a tenet of ethical and professional journalism, don't use it either. The i-word finds many people guilty before they are tried and ignores the fact that our laws are unjustly applied. Immigrants without documents are regularly hired as cheap, exploited labor with a limited ability to protect their own rights. No one else who benefits from the set up, including the employers who recruit and hire these migrants, is labeled this way.

The i-word is used to unfairly label and scapegoat people who are out of status due to a variety of systematic circumstances. For example, many people:

are brought to the country against their will

are brought to the country by employers who often exploit them for cheap labor

Fall out of status and overstay their VISAS because of school or employment

risk being killed in their country of origin due to political beliefs, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation

are affected by natural disasters and/or other reasons beyond their control

are forced by economics and harmful policies like NAFTA to leave their country to simply provide for their families

are on a backlog waiting years to get processed, even when they are eligible to get papers through a relative. Take a look at Reason.org's illustration of America's broken immigration and naturalization system .

Watch: Drop the I-Word. No Human Being is Illegal.

Let me get these comments out of the way so you don't have to leave them for me:
"You're just a stupid liberal"
"Liberals are liars"
"Liberals are lyres"
"Propaganda! Propaganda!"
"What part of ILLEGAL don't you lefty idiots understand?!"
"The indians didn't own the land legally, I'm not an illegal immigrant, shut the hell up!"
"This is just more of that "politically correct" bullshit"
"ILLEGAILLEGALILLEGAL"
"DEY TAKIN DER JERBS!"
etc.

Sorry for the uber long description. I know I've complained about it a few times before myself. Forgive me!

BG: from the Drop the I-Word campaign website
Temp: [link]

Click here for ALL of my Stamps
Click here for Religious Stamps
Click here for Political Stamps