AP Stylebook stops using ‘i’ word (illegal) after MoveOn.org appeal from Cesar Chavez’s widow and others to halt racial stereotypes in reporting
On-line petition from Helen Chavez, 85, asks N.Y. Times, major media outlets for more inclusive, tolerant discussion of immigration in America
Keene, Calif.—AP Stylebook, known as the journalist’s bible, “no longer sanctions the term ‘illegal immigrant’ or the use of ‘illegal’ to describe a person,” according to a statement from AP Stylebook Senior Vice President and Editor Kathleen Carroll (http://blog.ap.org).
The decision by the book used as the writing style guide in newsrooms across the nation follows an on-line appeal from Cesar Chavez’s 85-year old widow, Helen Chavez, issued by the MoveOn.org online petition site Signon.org that began on Sept. 26, 2012. In it, Helen Chavez asked the New York Times and other media organizations to cease using the word “illegal” when referring to farm workers and other Latinos and immigrants.
More than 40,000 people signed the petition. “It is never too late to stand on the right side of history,” Mrs. Chavez wrote then. Her words appear prophetic now that prospects appear good for enacting comprehensive immigration reform. For the Helen Chavez petition, see: http://signon.org/sign/it-is-never-too-late?source=c.url&r_by=5670643
Instead of using illegal immigrant, the stylebook “tells users that ‘illegal’ should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally,” AP Stylebook’s Carroll said. “We had in other areas been ridding the stylebook of labels.” From now on, the stylebook says to “use illegal only to refer to an action, not a person: illegal immigration, but not illegal immigrant.” It also says, “do not use the terms illegal alien, an illegal, illegals or undocumented.”
MoveOn.org Executive Director Anna Galland credits Helen Chavez and her grandson, MoveOn campaign organizer Alejandro Chavez, for originating the petition. Helen Chavez’s family and the Cesar Chavez Foundation also endorse the petition. The Chavez foundation, based where Helen Chavez resides in Keene, Calif., is the non-profit, tax-exempt arm of the farm worker movement. It builds affordable housing, operates a four-state network of nine educational Spanish-language radio stations and runs the National Chavez Center (part of which is now the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument proclaimed last October by President Obama) where Chavez is buried.
Remembering her years laboring in the fields, “we were called ‘wetbacks,’ ‘dirty Mexicans’—and worse,” Helen Chavez wrote in the petition. “It is no longer acceptable to call people names or use stereotypes because of skin color or who people are. Why should we tolerate farm workers and other Latinos being treated this way? Some day not long from now people will look back and ask, ‘How could people call other people names like illegal?’ Is it never too late to stand on the right side of history?”
“My father and his movement gave hope and pride to farm workers plus millions of Latinos and people from all walks of life,” said Paul Chavez, Chavez foundation president. “We congratulate the AP Stylebook for changing the way we talk about immigration in this country. We call on the New York Times and other media outlets to follow the AP’s lead.”
For more about the Cesar Chavez Foundation, see: www.chavezfoundation.orgFor more about the United Farm Workers of America, visit: www.ufw.org