Humergence®

Immigration, American Style

North of San Diego along the I-5 freeway are large yellow signs with the outline of a string of three people running: a woman holding the hands of two small children. These warn drivers that migrants might suddenly dash in front of vehicles in an attempt to evade authorities. A few miles out of town, traffic slows as vehicles heading north fan out among what look like toll booths. There are no tolls, but those with brown faces or who look suspicious are checked carefully. Drivers with white faces are sometimes asked if anyone else is in the vehicle; more often they are simply waved through. This is another reminder of Life Conditions faced by Mexican immigrants struggling to find a foothold in California and the US, and of the crisis facing the USA.

DRAWING LINES ON PAPER AND SAND: ANATOMY OF A CARTOON CLASH

Lines get drawn in many ways. Some are pen strokes sketched by artists; others are concrete forms laid out by architects. Many are abstract - dearly held values and unwritten social norms sketched indelibly in our minds, not with our hands. These days, cartoon drawings are crossing a lot of lines and pointing to divisions between worldviews in conflict.

A recent case of this in the U.S. involved actor and Scientology spokesman Tom Cruise who reportedly threw his star power around to persuade Viacom/Comedy Central to suspend rerunning an episode of the animated South Park satire that skewered the beliefs of Scientology. Fellow Scientologist Isaac Hayes left his voice-over role on the show in protest, as well. The event entertained many Americans, enraged loyal South Park fans, and got lots of attention for both the Scientologists and the show. The affair discredited Cruise in the eyes of some fans who see the church based on sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics as a self-important mega-cult, while fellow Scientologists viewed his stand as a heroic defense of their religion. This fusion of animated characters with matters of faith made perfectly good sense on Hollywood terms.

In contrast, many people scratched their heads in utter confusion and dismay when the publication of a set of pen-and-ink newspaper cartoons in Denmark caused outrage because quite a few Muslims believed they had crossed the line. For many non-Muslim observers, the intensity of the reaction made no sense at all. Subsequent reproductions of these inflammatory drawings fanned anger since they were taken as extreme insults and deliberate, in-your-face defamation. Protests and riots ensued as Islamic true believers took to the streets in righteous anger to demand respect for their beliefs. They were countered by calls for freedom of expression and an equally self-righteous refusal to buckle under to threats and intimidation.