{"id":1315082,"date":"2019-09-27T20:20:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-28T02:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/cepeda-column-the-normalization-of-hate-during-the-trump-era\/"},"modified":"2019-09-27T20:20:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-28T02:20:00","slug":"cepeda-column-the-normalization-of-hate-during-the-trump-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/cepeda-column-the-normalization-of-hate-during-the-trump-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Cepeda column: The \u2018normalization of hate\u2019 during the Trump era"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/p>

Cepeda<\/strong>
IMAGELOADER<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

CHICAGO \u2014 In a 2016 blog post on the word \u201cnormalization,\u201d the Merriam-Webster dictionary website described how Donald Trump\u2019s candidacy made routine what used to be outlier behavior and language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018normalization of hate,\u2019 then, is not the removal of extreme and hateful rhetoric or views to fit the mode of modern discourse, but instead the redefinition of modern discourse to allow those extreme views to be considered normal,\u201d the post observed.<\/p>\n

More recently, a report underwritten by the immigrant-advocacy group Define American found that the reality-distortion field of the Trump administration has spread beyond the president\u2019s tweets and statements and impacted the general population through traditional media as well.<\/p>\n

For instance, the language used in immigration reporting at four of the country\u2019s most prominent newspapers grew less tolerant from 2014 to 2018, with an uptick in the use of such dehumanizing and offensive terms as \u201cillegal immigrant\u201d and \u201calien,\u201d according to the report, which is titled \u201cThe Language of Immigration Reporting: Normalizing vs. Watchdogging in a Nativist Age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some people will look at those terms and see only factual words that are descriptive and are used in official government materials.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s hard not to consider terminology like \u201canchor baby,\u201d \u201cimmigrant\/migrant invasion,\u201d \u201cflood of immigrants\/migrants\u201d and the grammarian\u2019s bane, \u201cillegals,\u201d as what they are: othering. And racist.<\/p>\n

Define American\u2019s partnership with MIT\u2019s Media Cloud and Harvard University\u2019s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society looked for denigrating terminology and phrases, including those listed above, at The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and USA Today because they are widely seen as setting the standards and tone in immigration coverage.<\/p>\n

The analysis uncovered that:<\/p>\n

\u2022 All four publications showed a slight increase in stories containing at least one of the terms or phrases that used the word \u201cillegal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The increase is perhaps due solely to the expansion of immigration-related news events that have occurred during the Trump presidency. A related trend is the use of the terms in quotation marks, such as I\u2019ve done here, which effectively distances the author from the usage but can still reinforce the offending words to the reader.<\/p>\n

\u2022 While right-leaning and center-right-leaning news outlets had the highest percentage of stories with denigrating language between 2014 to 2018, \u201cThe Washington Post consistently used denigrating terms more often than The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times or USA Today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Los Angeles Times had the fewest uses of denigrating language in immigration stories and immigrants when compared to those three other major publications as well as a selection of other national news outlets and left and center-left leaning publications.<\/p>\n

(My guess at The Los Angeles Times\u2019 secret sauce? They have more people of color on their staff than most other publications and are in a metropolitan area in which Latinos are not just part of the fabric but also a more established part of the middle and professional classes than out East.)<\/p>\n

There is some good news, though.<\/p>\n

Despite what we think we know about fake news and how it goes viral, it turns out that \u2014 at least on Facebook \u2014 the researchers did not find evidence that stories with denigrating terms were more likely to be widely shared. Only 14% of the top 100 immigration-related stories that were shared on Facebook used denigrating terms.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an important data point: It backs up the idea that news stories and headlines need not be sensational in order to gain traction with readers. Or, more importantly, to deliver the clicks and views necessary to continue funding the journalism we all want and need to maintain a functioning democracy.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, it\u2019s worth noting that newspapers are businesses and rely on readers to come back time and again.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t like the language your daily media publications use when talking about immigrants, people of color or other marginalized groups, tell them.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t simply go elsewhere; take a moment or two to drop the editor a letter that specifies how they can adjust their tone to not insult you or your loved ones.<\/p>\n

Try it. Newspapers intrinsically want to be fair \u2014 and even newspaper editors know that the customer is always right.<\/p>\n

Esther Cepeda\u2019s email address is estherjcepeda@washpost.com<\/a>, or follow her on Twitter: @estherjcepeda. (c) 2019, Washington Post Writers Group<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CepedaIMAGELOADER CHICAGO \u2014 In a 2016 blog post on the word \u201cnormalization,\u201d the Merriam-Webster dictionary website described how Donald Trump\u2019s candidacy made routine what used to be outlier behavior and language. \u201cThe \u2018normalization of hate,\u2019 then, is not the removal of extreme and hateful rhetoric or views to fit the mode of modern discourse, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1315082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-28 01:27:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315082\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}