Brian T. Watson
As of this writing, radio talk-show host Jay Severin remains suspended indefinitely from his position at Boston's WTKK-FM. My hope is that the station does not reinstate him.
On Thursday, April 30, Severin was suspended after he made numerous derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants during that week's broadcasts. He called them "criminaliens," "leeches" and "the world's lowest of primitives."
"So now, in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico, now we have swine flu," Severin declared. "Millions of leeches from a primitive country come here to leech off you and, with it, they are ruining the schools, the hospitals and a lot of life in America."
Those statements are loathsome, contain unfounded and inaccurate descriptions, and encourage prejudice and hate.
While freedom of speech permits Severin personally to say what he likes, there is no requirement for a radio station to give him a platform for his poisonous ranting. Similarly, there may be an audience for the immigrant-bashing that Severin has engaged in, but that doesn't obligate WTKK to employ him.
As station managers consider whether to reinstate Severin, they ought to consider the damage he does. They ought to weigh what immigration has meant to this country, and they ought to recognize the familiar bigotry and hostility in Severin's tirades.
From the very first settlers in the New World, to those who will arrive here today, immigration has been the story of America. These new arrivals have supplied our country with its renowned energy, optimism, diversity, resourcefulness, productivity and entrepreneurial spirit; they have helped shape the unshakable, congenital egalitarianism that is America's hallmark.
Between 1815 and 1914, roughly 35 million people migrated to the United States. During that time, the nation's population grew from 8 million to 100 million. By 1914, virtually every American was an immigrant or the child of an immigrant.
As is the case today, migrants in the 1800s came in waves from different regions of the world. The immigrants before 1860 hailed primarily from northern and western Europe; they were mostly English, Irish and German. Between 1880 and 1914, newcomers came from southern and eastern Europe, mostly Italians, Greeks, Jews, Poles, Austrians, Latvians and Russians.
Before 1921 there was almost no restriction on immigration. With the exception of Asians, who were excluded in 1882, no nationality whatsoever was barred. And citizenship was granted freely after five years of residence.
In 1921 and 1924, the first significant laws were passed to limit immigration. A quota was established for each nationality that equaled 2 percent of the number of that group residing in the U.S. in 1890.
In 1965, the quota system was replaced with preferences for emigrating family members and skilled professionals, and the establishment of an overall ceiling of 290,000 immigrants. In 1990, the ceiling was raised to 675,000 annually. In actuality, close to a million legal immigrants have entered in many years.
Since 1815, almost every large influx of "different" immigrants has spurred the sort of irrational reactions voiced by nativists like Severin.
For example, between 1845 and 1850, when half-a-million Irish came to America during their native country's Great Famine, anti-foreign and anti-Catholic forces created the secret "Order of the Star-Spangled Banner" to promote fear of immigrants. Also known (appropriately) as the "Know-Nothing Party," members claimed there was a papal plot to control America.
In the 1870s, on the West Coast, the large pool of Chinese immigrants, with "strange" religious beliefs and "yellow" skin, caused widespread anti-Asian hysteria. Sen. George Williams of Oregon called the Chinese "heathens and pagans."
In the 1920s, after almost 2 million Jews came here to escape the Russian pogroms, the Ku Klux Klan targeted them and other eastern Europeans with the same abusive rhetoric and terror tactics that it had long used on blacks.
There is no end to the examples of immigrant-bashing. And all of the campaigns proved to be as groundless, ill-informed and destructive as the angry rhetoric spewed by Severin.
This is not the first time Severin has denigrated minorities. In 2004, in a shocking response to a caller who had suggested "befriending" Muslims, he said, "I think we should kill them."
WTKK should remove Severin from the air permanently. He is insulting, disrespectful and inflammatory. He misinforms and miseducates.
Broadcasting to a wide public is an opportunity, a privilege and a responsibility. Regardless of political stance, WTKK's programs can either pull people up with reliable information and constructive content, or push people down with distortions, dehumanizations and bigotry.
Severin's comments have been disgraceful and utterly unredeeming. Ironically, he is an embarrassment to, and the antithesis of, the ideals of the very America he purports to defend.
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Brian T. Watson of Swampscott is a regular Salem News columnist. Contact him at watson@nii.net.
