Another of a seemingly endless shake-your-head series of jump-the-shark politically correct attempts at distraction from the state’s massive wall of debt crisis, Governor “Moonbeam” Jerry Brown and the Democrat legislature have decided to strike the English word “alien” from California labor laws.
Not the legal and accurate term for non-citizens here in violation of American immigration laws—which is “illegal alien”—just… “alien.”
Democrat State Senator Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia), author of the bill, says “alien” is now commonly considered a derogatory term for a foreign-born person and has very negative connotations. Note to Mendoza from mainstream America: No, it isn’t and no, it doesn’t.
The executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, Tim Paulson, reportedly told the San Francisco Chronicle that, “the word ‘alien’ has incredibly racist and un-American connotations.” Got that?
Merriam-Webster contains several definitions for the English word “alien.” Among them:
• “a person who was born in a different country and is not a citizen of the country in which he or she now lives;
• “a foreign-born resident who has not been naturalized and is still a subject or citizen of a foreign country; and
• “a creature that comes from somewhere other than the planet Earth”
Nanu, nanu, Governor Brown…
Apparently, even though English is the official language of California, there are exceptions for its usage.
We anxiously await the headline announcing the official scrubbing of the word “alien” in any discussions or studies at Caltech’s center of astronomical research, Mt. Palomar Observatory, as “racist.”
Queries to my native Spanish-speaking friends informs me that “alien” en Espanol is “extranjero.” So, a question for the language police in Sacramento: Is alien “racist, derogatory, and un-American” in any language… or only in English?
Maybe the entire California legal code can be soon re-written in Emojis?
Meanwhile, back here on planet Earth, curious readers should know that “alien” is still really a word. As a matter of fact, it is usefully combined with the English word “illegal” quite often. One wonders at the sleepless nights and fits of rage from the California intelligentsia when they hear that “illegal alien” is used in federal law, various state laws, by the IRS, in multiple presidential Executive Orders, by federal immigration law enforcement, and by the United States Supreme Court—including by that self-described “wise Latina,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
“The concern is that the use of the word ‘alien’ would dehumanize the people affected” and lead to “lack of protections under the law,” claims Kevin R. Johnson, dean of Public Interest Law and professor of Chicana/Chicano Studies at UC Davis.
The quotes from California’s sensitive elite bring up yet another question. Is it “dehumanizing” or “derogatory” to use the word “alien” when noting the murder of Kate Steinle by an illegal alien who was a convicted criminal and had been deported multiple times? We wouldn’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings.
Is it “un-American” or hurtful when Americans Billy and Kathy Inman of Woodstock, Georgia tell the story of an illegal alien killing their only child, Dustin—age sixteen, fifteen years ago in his own country because the alien victim of borders was welcomed into the USA by mindless politicians and rewarded with an officially issued drivers license, a job, and various public benefits?
Is it “dehumanizing” when Kathy Inman explains from her wheelchair that she has been there ever since the illegal alien looking for a better life put here there for the rest of her life when he killed her son?
This latest mindless attempt to eliminate the inconvenient words from the English language only serve to remind the rest of us that California is the illegal immigration capital of the world and is going bust because of its ridiculous and deadly liberal laws and policies.
One more definition from Merriam-Webster: “Fool: a person who lacks good sense or judgment: a stupid or silly person.”