Phoenix, AZ – Artist Reinforces Immigration Cartoon Criticized by ADL

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    Phoenix, AZ – Cartoonists rely on iconography. Symbol is ready metaphor, and not just such trite-and-true staples as donkeys and elephants and American eagles. No editorial toolkit is complete without the darkest of symbols — the emblems of evil that never lose their emotional impact. The KKK hood. The noose. The swastika.

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    When employing the most vile of emblems, editorial cartoonists sometimes mine the embedded power for hyperbole. So it is that the Anti-Defamation League might have presumed New Jersey cartoonist Jimmy Margulies was being hyperbolic when several days ago, in reaction to Arizona’s new immigration law, he drew Gov. Jan Brewer’s state as the mustache of Hitler.

    Point made. But powerfully. Arizona puts the “AZ” in “nAZi.”

    The ADL, however, took issue with Margulies’s metaphor.

    “We are seeing these offensive and inappropriate Nazi and Holocaust comparisons come to the fore in the public debate once again. We saw it in the health care debate, and now we are seeing it with Arizona,” said Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL national director, in a statement released Wednesday.

    “It is disturbing that in speaking out against the bill a number of individuals have taken to using Nazi comparisons, in describing the legislation as being reminiscent of Nazi policies that required Jews and others to carry identity cards, or in comparing the governor and other Arizona officials as being like Hitler,” said Foxman, noting that it might be “politically expedient” to invoke such symbols.

    However, Foxman added: “No matter how odious, bigoted, biased and unconstitutional Arizona’s new law may be, let’s be clear that there is no comparison between the situation facing immigrants, legal or illegal, in Arizona and what happened in the Holocaust.”

    To illustrate its point Wednesday, the ADL specifically cited the Margulies cartoon, saying: “In New Jersey, an editorial cartoon in the Bergen Record portrayed Hitler with his infamous moustache rendered in the shape of the state of ‘Arizona.’ ”

    Speaking to Comic Riffs on Thursday, Margulies explained — and reinforced — his invoking of a Nazi analogy, stating that it was appropriate to tap not only its potency, but also its literal memory.

    ‘”As a Jew of Eastern European descent, I am well aware of the unique horror of the Nazi era. It is all the more important that I, and others of good conscience who are able to reach an audience, do so in the face of abhorrent laws such as Arizona’s,” Margulies writes.

    Margulies continues: “I do not think it diminishes the memory of the Holocaust to point out that the law in Arizona is uncomfortably reminiscent of Germany’s in targeting one or more minorities. Before the concentration camps, there were smaller measures enacted which set the stage for greater acts.

    “The Arizona law gives police too much power by casting as suspects anyone who looks to be Latino or foreign-born.”


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    5 Comments
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    David
    David
    13 years ago

    The nazi analogy (to which folks resort far too quickly) is a substitute for rational argument. Reasonable minds can differ on many issues (including immigration). Reasonable minds cannot differ, however, on questions of naziism and the Holocaust. Thus, the basic idea behind the Hitler/nazi analogy in any political discussion is generally: “Instead of arguing with your views, I’m going to demonize you personally.” It’s a cheap shot, and should be rejected by people on both sides of the political spectrum.

    LIBERALISM IS A DISEASE!!!
    LIBERALISM IS A DISEASE!!!
    13 years ago

    Interesting how the Socialist Democrat Party doesn’t recall that THEY are always the first to ask for papers. They conveniently forget that during last summer when it came to getting into TownHall meetings, THEY asked for papers from people wanting to attend meetings in order to ‘make sure’ the people (who no doubt were AGAINST govt intervention in health care) were residents of that particular district.

    Well as Rev Wrong yemach sh’mo put it, “The chickens are coming home to roost!”

    Conservative One
    Conservative One
    13 years ago

    The Democrats don’t want us to control illegal aliens from entering the United States. They and their Commendant, Hussein Obama, want all illegal aliens given full citizenship so that they can vote and vote Democratic, assuring themselves total control of government. How sinister.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Note Foxman’s depiction of AZ’s law as “odious, bigoted, biased and unconstitutional.” I guess every state (including his home state of New Jerkey) that requires proof of status for a obtaining a driver’s license or state benefits, federal laws requiring same for federal benefits, laws requiring employers to determine proof of status are equally “odious, bigoted, biased and unconstitutional,” but we don’t see ol’ Abe whining about THAT now do we?

    Not to mention the fact that federal law requires immigrants to carry on them proof of status at all times and that federal agents can stop any one at any time (based on reasonable suspicion) and demand to “see their papers.” Unlike AZ law which is significanty more restrictive, first requiring existing “lawful contact” (meaning th cop has to have already detained you for something else).

    Abe… why don’t you get a real job. We don’t need a “whiner-in-chief”

    Nazi State?  Really?
    Nazi State? Really?
    13 years ago

    Are the AZ law enforcement officers rounding up mexicans, putting them on box cars, sending them to “work camps”, starving them, and then killing them?

    Didn’t think so. Libtards.