Cartoon: Our (Shit)Whole Immigration Policy

A new cartoon on Spliter today!


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This is definitely a strange month for me! Normally four out of four cartoons I do each month are only published on my social media – here, Patreon, Twitter, Facebook. But this month, as it turns out, three out of four are being published elsewhere! (I have an MLK-related cartoon coming up, which I suppose they’ll post tomorrow.)

This cartoon was published today on Splinter. And, in a first for me, I didn’t pitch the idea to Splinter – instead, Splinter reached out to me and asked if I could do something for something on Trump’s “shithole” comment. It’s not something I ordinarily do – “shithole” is very much a story-of-the-week, and I prefer to do cartoons on more lasting issues – but it was so nice to be asked that I said “yes.”

Aside from Trump’s use of a swear word, what struck me is how much Trump’s statement puts the lie to the frequent Republican claim that they’re in favor of merit and judging people as individuals. Trump said that we shouldn’t be accepting anyone from some nations – basically, from majority Black nations – a view that is the polar opposite of merit and judging people as individuals. So I decided to try and get at that in my cartoon.

Some people might say that this is Trump, not the Republican party. But as far as I’m concerned, Trump IS the Republican party. When you elect someone President, you’re also electing them to be the face of your party; if the GOP had wanted someone else, they would have chosen someone else. And although Trump expresses it crudely, it’s clear that he’s saying nothing about immigration that the Republican base doesn’t agree with.

That’s why I drew a random Republican spokesman here, rather than drawing Trump himself. We don’t want to fall for the illusion that Trump is something radically different from the GOP, rather than the long-existing garbage in a cruder bag.

Artwise, I had to draw this fast – I actually did this in one day. (A long day – I was scheduled to eat dinner at a friend’s house that night, and brought my tablet and finished drawing it at their dining room table! – but still just one day). A strip like “Toxic Masculinity Stew” I spent ages drawing, but you can’t do that when an editor has asked for a cartoon to be delivered fast.

So I chose a single figure standing at a podium – which is just about the easiest thing I could draw. But, having chosen that, I did my best to work hard on the single figure – doing his suit by careful cross-hatching instead of just solid black, trying to make his expressions and hand movements varied and animated, etc. It’s simple, but I can still try to do a good job with it.


Transcript of cartoon:

Panel 1
A middle-aged or older man, handsome in a grandfatherly way, stands behind a podium wearing a brown suit. He looks stern and serious, and raises his left index finger into the air as he speaks.

MAN: Republican Immigration policy is NOT racist! “American first” is not racist! “Merit-based” is not racist!

Panel 2
A close-up of the man, who is now smiling genially, and shrugging.
MAN: The Republican policy isn’t about anything but MERIT! We want immigrants who can contribute to our society and grow our economy! Judging people as individuals is NOT racist!

Panel 3
Final panel. The man makes a fist and is now scowling angrily.
MAN: Oh, and we don’t want anyone from Africa, Haiti or any of those SHITHOLE countires. That’s it. Bye now!

This entry posted in Cartooning & comics, Immigration, Migrant Rights, etc, In the news, Race, racism and related issues. Bookmark the permalink. 

9 Responses to Cartoon: Our (Shit)Whole Immigration Policy

  1. 1
    JutGory says:

    The Democratic lottery policy presumes that foreign countries are shitholes. Liberals are just aghast that Trump, a long-time Democrat, said what they believe.

    The visa lottery is based on the notion that people from the worst countries will want to come here. Why? Why are they the poor and tired, yearning to be free? Is it because they come from “shithole” countries? Yes. Liberals think so. They just can’t say so. Because that would expose their lie. And, they are angry that Trump says what they believe, but don’t date say

  2. 2
    Ben David says:

    Since this blog is my main contact point with the progressive Left – could someone here provide a direct quote indicating that Republicans use skin color as a factor in determining if a country is a “shithole”.

    As opposed to, say, education and skill set of the potential immigrants (=likelihood to contribute rather than being a burden) and their previous exposure to democracy and other aspects of our civic culture (=likelihood to assimilate succesfully).

    Otherwise The Rest of Us will dismiss this cartoon as further evidence that the Left has become a Johnny-One-Note labeling everything it opposes “racist”.

  3. 3
    Ledasmom says:

    The difference, JutGory, is that Trump thinks that’s a reason not to admit them, and some of us think it’s a reason to admit them.

  4. 4
    Jeffrey Gandee says:

    “Likelihood to contribute rather than being a burden” of potential immigrants isn’t the metric being used by republicans. Here’s a piece from the not-so-progressive Tyler Cowen explaining why:

    https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-01-12/africa-is-sending-us-its-best-and-brightest

    It’s a great read.

  5. 5
    RonF says:

    What is the official reason for the diversity visa/immigration lottery program? Where can I find it expressed? I’d look it up but I don’t know the official name of the program.

  6. 7
    RonF says:

    According to the Wikipedia article,

    The lottery aims to diversify the immigrant population in the United States, by selecting applicants mostly from countries with low numbers of immigrants to the United States in the previous five years.

    That describes the intended outcome. What it does not answer is what the reason is for attaining that outcome. Why is diversifying the immigrant population in the U.S. viewed as a necessary objective?

  7. 8
    Charles says:

    “… diversity visa/immigration lottery program … I’d look it up but I don’t know the official name of the program.”

    I continue to find it amazing exactly how scared of Google you are. Sticking the exact phrase you typed into google gives you the page Amp linked to plus the official pages for the program.

    This article seems like a good summary of both the history of the program and the benefits of the program. I found it through the google search: “original congressional arguments for american visa lottery.”

  8. 9
    Jake Squid says:

    I continue to find it amazing exactly how scared of Google you are.

    Googlephobia is a serious and debilitating condition and not to be mocked. Fortunately for sufferers of this heartbreaking impediment, modern internetting has provided us with several cromulent alternatives such as Bing and Yahoo!

    With today’s modern webtubes, nobody has to continue to suffer in ignorance. If you or someone you know suffers from googlephobia, please let them know about the alternatives.

    Side effects may include: insufferable superiority, learning things that disagree with your worldview, exposure to fraudulent claims and new or worsening death.