Whenever I feel in need of a dose of right-wing nuttiness, The Bulletin’s editorial page never lets me down. If the editorials themselves fail to deliver, the “In My View” pieces or letters to the editor always come through.
This morning’s winner was a letter from Margaret Dement of Madras blaming the rise of bedbugs in New York City on the twin evils of “multiculturalism and mass immigration.”
“Bedbugs are uncommon in Western, industrialized nations,” Dement writes, “but endemic in less-developed countries from which U.S. elites and left-wing groups are eager to import cheap labor and future voters, according to Middle American News.”
I had never heard of Middle American News, but a couple of minutes with the Google quickly turned it up. It’s a rag published out of Raleigh, NC, with a strong right-wing political bias and an openly racist attitude. Its website says it “advocates preservation of America’s historic European-derived cultural identity, and believes the American people have the right to advocate and work for the establishment of national policies designed to preserve and protect the majority status of its core, European-descended population.” Its contributors include such luminaries of the loony right as Patrick Buchanan, Phyllis Schafly and Ann Coulter.
Bedbugs are endemic not only in “less-developed countries” but throughout the world, and have been for thousands of years. Their resurgence in New York and other parts of the United States is due not to hordes of dirty brown and black people flooding across our borders, but mostly to the banning of DDT and the bugs’ increasing resistance to other pesticides.
Increased travel also has helped the bugs spread widely and rapidly, because they’re great at hitching rides in people’s luggage. A wealthy businessman returning from a trip to Europe probably is more likely to bring bedbugs into his house than his Hispanic gardener is.
Depicting the targets of bigotry as filthy carriers of vermin and disease has always been a staple of racist rhetoric. “The Eternal Jew,” a 1940 Nazi propaganda film, describes the Jew as “a wandering cultural parasite. … While members of the Aryan race live healthily, rich Jews are shown as living in bug-infested and dirty homes, even though they could afford better.”
I would have liked to ask The Bulletin’s editors whether they thought they were doing their readers any service by printing racist drool, but I know from experience that they won’t talk to me. So if they want to defend their decision, they’re invited to do it by posting a response on this site.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.
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With everything going on these days, you’re griping about a letter to the editor? Wow.
I agree with you totally, Mr. Miller. I am an older American Indian/Alaskan Native, and I remember when people would not come near me because I was regarded as filthy and disease ridden.
Heat has been used to rid mankind of insects for thousands of years starting with a torch. Heat is the only 100% Safe GREEN method to stop the spread of and kill Bed Bugs.
As per the US Armed Forces guidelines (dating back to WW1) the whole structure and everything in it needs to be heated to be effective in getting rid of Bed Bugs. A simple steam wand or shot of frozen gas can not get deep into the areas where Bed Bugs live and don't be fooled by 1 hour heat treatment that some companies try to sell you. Pesticides usually take 3 treatments and would you want your children to sleep where they just sprayed toxic chemicals – I wouldn’t!
Call Frank the BedBug Chaser we’re the only true nationwide HEAT SPECIALISTS at 908-510-8110 or visit me on Facebook @ “BedBug Chaser” to see if heat is right for you.
I remember my mom telling me “Don’t let the bedbugs bite”, and I always thought they were myths – like that monster in my closet.
Then a couple of years ago I got them – took me weeks to figure out what was going on.
Then I got them again! The first time was moving into an apartment, the second after an overseas trip. They hard to spot, and harder to get rid of.
Afterwards I started a blog on my experience, and the best product I found that gave me the knowledge and plan to get rid of them.
http://bedbugsbgone.netii.net/
What else would you expect to see on the most juvenile editorial page in the state?
I know that many letters don’t make it onto that page, but I see no evidence that this category–illustrated by its latest example–is the one that gets cut.
The significant issue is not so much the letter as The Bulletin’s decision to print it.
The writer of that letter is a regular in not only The Bulletin but the Madras Pioneer — and has been for well over a decade. Can’t say why either publication publishes her racist drool on a regular basis, but they do.
BRUCE, I LOVED YOUR ARTICLE!!! I LIVE IN A SHELTER HERE IN TOWN AND WE HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH CRITTERS. YOU ARE SO RIGHT THAT THE BUGS CAN AND DO COME FROM EVERYWHERE.I DO THINK THIS PERSON NEEDS TO GET INFO.FROM THE EXPERTS BEFORE GOING OFF ON A RACIAL CONDEMNATION. OR MAYBE EVEN PSYCHIATRIC HELP! THANK AGAIN