The Illegal Immigrant

Over spring break I had the misfortune of watching Fox News and the snippet of The O’Reilly Factor. I was mostly paying attention to the book in front of me while my boyfriend’s father watched the show but I couldn’t block it out completely. The one clip that really affected me was Bill O’Reilly’s coverage of the news story of a 20-ish year old girl who had been killed. The headline for this story was something along the lines of “Illegal Immigrant Kills Woman.”

Three things bothered me about this and the coverage of the story.

1 – If there had been no picture accompanying the headline of the illegal immigrant, I wouldn’t know a single other fact about him. The five times they referred to him he was only called the illegal immigrant.

2 – He did not murder her. She died in a car accident that was his fault but he did not seek her out and kill her, it was an accident.

3 – There was hardly any coverage on the victim. I was sitting there waiting for him to give an account of her life and all the things they typically say about white women who are killed but he shared almost no details about her.

Then I realized that these things are true because all that mattered in his broadcast of this story was that an illegal immigrant had done something awful.

This got me thinking about titles. Going back to my first problem with this story, I wondered what other aspects there were to this illegal immigrants life. From his picture I could tell he was a man in his mid-twenties but that’s it. O’Reilly framed his story in a way that left me no other possible choice but to associate this illegal immigrants and all illegal immigrants with crime and bad things that we don’t want in America. While I believe that people should not come into this country illegally I know that most do because they have no other choice and that just because on of them does something wrong doesn’t mean they should all be executed (or hidden behind a wall, Trump).

I also started thinking about intersectionality. This illegal immigrant undoubtedly belongs to many other groups and titles but was denied all of them except man and criminal. Not only was he denied his own titles but so was his victim in an attempt to give her the only 3 titles she needed (white, woman, victim) to condemn the illegal immigrant even further. While I realize they only have so many minutes to spend on each story, it seems that to be denied your different group titles, especially the positive ones, is unethical.

As I continued thinking about this I tried to think of all the titles I hold from my in-groups…

White

Female

American

Texan

Southern

Educated

Twenty-year-old

College student

Art student

Travler

Driver

Reader

Soccer player

Scrapbooker

Sister

Daughter

Child of divorce

Cousin

Niece

Granddaughter

Friend

Sorority woman

Zeta Tau Alpha

Brunet

Short

Busty

I was a little shocked as my list continued to grow in my head and realized that if any single one of these was taken away, my entire being would change. Every aspect of who I have become in 20 years was built on the foundation of these groups interacting together through me. Which ones on this list would I be willing to have taken from me for the sake of a shitty, politically framed news story?

Minorities in Media *EDITED*

Someone did their project over twilight and we got into a conversation about how different people are underrepresented in the film. While I agree that a lot of movies are mostly white, I wonder what conversation we would be having about a story of a black family written by a white person…

Again I find myself thinking back to this Macklemore rapping about black culture. Does it then become cultural appropriation and a bad thing? Would the movie then be chastised because a white producer is making money off a “black” movie?

Also what about your “token black friend” in many movies? Where is the line between being criticized for including people and including the right number of people? The fact that the “token black friend” is even a widely understood role proves there is an issue at hand but how do we fix it?

To further this question I wonder: are we arguing that producers and movie companies should be producing more movies and books written by black people or that just in general there needs to be more of a mix? Are we criticizing this media for symbolically annihilating minorities or are we mad because of how everyone is represented in whole?  Are we criticizing people for writing about their culture or the culture that they know or are we criticizing the industry?

Who are we blaming and why?

To me it seems like no one can do anything correctly. No matter what we do, we are always criticized for something. So where do we draw the line? When is it enough?

Then we run in to the issue of racial segregation again in media. If the black community is unhappy with the number of white people in most American movies, it could be argued that they should go make their own predominantly black movies. This is clearly not a viable solution since the black community does not have the same means or opportunities as the white community to produce blockbuster films and this also brings back the idea of separate but equal.

So what is the solution?

In major films should the industry impose a requirement of each race? Or should movies be cast blind where production crews can’t see the people auditioning and the color of their skin? But then what if the movie is about the history of slaves and white actors get cast as slaves? Or if a biography of George Bush and his family (who are clearly all white) is being made, how should other races be incorporated into that? I know these are slightly extreme examples but the idea holds: when is it good enough and where is the line drawn?

I do think there is a large importance in equally representing different races in media becase that is how our society becomes more comfortable with “others.” For example, the Cosby show was the first real show about an affluent black family who lived like “regular” (aka white people). Or the TV show Modern Family, which has helped normalize gay relationships in many places. These shows included groups that are not regularly represented and helped society feel more comfortable with them. While I don’t think it is right to say that rich affluent white men need time to help them feel comfortable with these minority groups, I know that everything takes time and adjustment and depends on the education of the next generation.