Boston Herald On Illegal Immigration: Something Wrong With This Picture?

poll

by Frances Martel | 11:03 pm, April 27th, 2010

» 9 comments

Well, this is a doozy of a newspaper cover. The April 27th edition of the Boston Herald tackled head-on the issue of illegal immigration, and what Massachusetts is doing to cut down on government funding being used to support impoverished illegal immigrants. Except they seem to have inadvertently hit on a racial nerve in the process.

With the loud title “Mass. Cracks Down On Illegals,” the Herald shows three different people– a Caucasian-looking young man, an Asian young man, and an African-American young woman– with three stamps on their foreheads: “no tuition,” “no medicaid,” and “no welfare,” respectively.

It appears to be an attempt to present the “illegal” as a rainbow coalition defined by no distinguishing feature, perhaps in light of the Arizona debate surrounding what an illegal immigrant looks like. The fact that none of the three people could pass for Mexican, the group most targeted by opponents of illegal immigration, corroborates this. Except it looks like someone has overlooked the fact that implying the lighter man is the one going to school and the African-American girl is the one on welfare might be referencing an unfortunate historical stereotype. Good thing the cover also tells us the Herald is having a “workplace diversity job fair”– looks like they may need one. And if you looked at this cover and thought ‘Wow, how New York Post of them!’, the Herald is also owned by Rupert Murdoch.

Do you see something wrong with this cover? Vote in our poll below!

Boston Herald, Diversity, government programs, illegal immigration, Massachusetts, racial issues, welfare

HanzoSword

This cover is a good metaphor for the AZ law and what its effect will be.
valkyrie101

The two most influencial right wing media figures: Rupert Murdoch, citizen of Australia and Sun Myung Moon, citizen of South Korea. Both bought their status as U.S. permanent residents.
ChrisNH

People without jobs–legal citizens all–are being asked to cough up more in taxes than ever in order to support freeloaders who come here illegally to get on the ‘entitlement gravy train.’ And these Libs are somehow ‘taken aback’ by the outrage of that? Three cheers for The Boston Herald. In other news today, The circulation & readership of The Boston Globe continues to plummet. That would be the Obama-loving Boston Globe.
MichelleF

HanzoSword says:
April 28, 2010 at 12:13 am
This cover is a good metaphor for the AZ law and what its effect will be.

Do you even realize that all the AZ law says is it will follow EXISTING federal law? Clearly Obama doesn’t know that either. Kind of sad.
valkyrie101

Yea, Rupert, proudly a child of one of the criminals that was dumped in Australia by the British, from those prisons, now to virtually controlling half of America. Gotta love that land of opportunity. Si, Amego.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Golas/1196016513 Chris Golas

one correction, Murdoch does not own the Boston herald. It was sold back in 1994. Herald Media owns it now.

http://www.heraldmedia.com/heraldMedia/history.html
valkyrie101

Think about it, Moon and Murdoch both come from Asia. Isn’t Asia the seat of Mao? And Ghenghis Khan? And haven’t our corporations been selling our country to China over the past decade? I don’t know, but I can not deny, that Moon and Murdoch are infiltraitors, from the East, who seek to undermine our country and its position of pre-emminence in the world.
http://thedailybarb.com Jack Burns

This article is very Racist to the Asian community. Stating they won’t get Medicaid. Like they would ever claim it. Why would they? Most of them are so smart they are already in the Medical field or have a relation that is. Hence they are making big bucks and can afford healthcare or they can just go to their brother who is already a doctor.
irony2804

Shame on the Boston Herald and its readers who argue that its April 28, 2010 cover was acceptable. Our society needs to engage in a profound dialouge of race in our great but troubled country. Let us not begin with the flaws of the minorities but with the flaws of our society which is rooted in inequalities and constant hurtful stereotypes to say the least. Faced with inequalities, hatred, poverty, sexism, racism, and capitalism how do we expect to ever raise a vibrant society?