Word choice and the Daily Aztec

Last week, we stopped by San Diego County for presentations at the two southernmost California State University campuses: San Marcos and San Diego. We were well received by captive audiences and plenty of support in both places. In San Diego, however, controversy precluded us, after an article previewing our event promoted it as an open discussion on "illegal immigrants":

Art Reed, one of our hosts on the campus, wrote a letter to the editor:

The labeling of our fellow students as “illegal immigrants” only increases the difficulties they face, and in fact exacerbates divisiveness on campus and in our community. The teach-in is meant precisely to dispel the kind of negative images and ideas about undocumented students that these sound bites and catchphrases foster.

It turns out that spineless copy editing and a narrow-minded AP stylebook were at fault on this one, as the original author, Wendy Fry, poured out her personal connection to undocumented workers in a blog post about the word choice dilemma. She also took on the AP:

The people who have failed to do their job competently, however, are those who serve on the AP Stylebook ethics board. The term is offensive, abhorrent and wrong especially in the context in which it was used. Unfortunately, it is a term pounded so incessantly into the mainstream media’s vocabulary that most journalists either accept it unquestionably or chose to completely avoid writing about immigration, an issue that needs to be addressed.

In my view, the controversy over the use of the term illegal immigrant is a non-issue. Because we know better, we avoid it here in almost all cases. But I feel that as long as you portray these 12 million souls as human beings, and you recognize all their human qualities, use whatever headline you want. Avoid, like the AP recommends, using the pejorative "illegals", and read up on credible sources before jumping on the NumbersUSA and FAIR bandwagon.
And in the end, remember that while these undocumented immigrants might have broken a law, in doing so they chose to uphold a set of human rights and principles that far outweigh the illegality of their border crossing, for it takes sacrifice and courage, character and hope, to make such a decision and undertake such a lifestyle.
To end the story, the Daily Aztec published a writeup of the event, also by Wendy Fry. Check that out here.