Michelle Malkin: Apology Demanded

[Updated at end of post - 10:00AM]

Michelle Malkin blogged this evening about "another cost of uncontrolled immigration":

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ANOTHER COST OF UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION

By Michelle Malkin · February 13, 2005 09:39 PM

The Washington Times ran a special investigative report today on the rise of contagious and other diseases in the U.S. that have been imported from southeast Asia and Latin America. It's an interesting read. Here's the intro:

Contagious diseases are entering the United States because of immigrants, illegal aliens, refugees and travelers, and World Health Organization officials say the worst could be yet to come.

In addition to a list of imported diseases that includes tuberculosis, sickle cell anemia, hepatitis B, measles and the potentially deadly parasitic disease Chagas, officials fear what could happen if the avian flu, which is flourishing among poultry in Southeast Asia, mutates so that it is capable of human-to-human transmission through casual contact...

More on the TB/Hmong angle here, here, and here.

Canada has a problem, too.

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Michelle:

To set your mind at east, the people in the United States (and Canada which you gleefully note "has a problem, too") who suffer from sickle cell anemia aren't contagious. Don't worry, Michelle - neither you nor your children will contract sickle cell anemia by sharing the colored water fountain with an illegal immigrant or sitting on a toilet seat that a brown person without documentation may have used earlier in the day.

I understand your sincere concern that "contagious and other diseases" imported from southeast Asia and Latin America are on the rise in the United States. Did you know that one out of twelve of your African-American neighbors is already a carrier of sickle cell anemia?

Sickle cell anemia is a dangerous, painful, genetic disease that leads to numerous medical complications in life and reduced lifespans for sufferers. There is no cure. Hundreds of thousands of your fellow Americans suffer from this disease.

Your quest to demean and villify non-whites and immigrants is normally conducted without regard for kindness or dignity. The public has come to expect this from you. One would, however, expect at the minimum a command of the facts at hand from someone who claims to be a "journalist." Citing the danger of immigrants introducing sickle cell anemia into the United States as another casus belli against immigration is ignorant, shameful and stinks of racist fearmongering.

Will you correct your error? Will you apologize to those who suffer from sickle cell anemia?

We will be watching your blog and column for your response.

[Update:]

The Malkin-defenders are out in force leaving comments and sending emails. "What she meant was..." "You didn't even read the article!..."

Yes, of course I read the article and I understand what it says. Perhaps one should ask whether or not Michelle's audience is likely to have read the article?

Stripping away as much emotion and extra information as possible, the message we are concerned with here from Malkin's post could be boiled down to this:

"Another cost of uncontrolled immigration is sickle cell anemia."

Now, Malkin-defenders, consider this. What does this mean? Since this is a "cost" she is citing we can assume that it is a condition she considers to be undesirable to society.

Malkin's average reader is going to see that post and get the impression that it is a "contagious" disease, but we can't help that. These are the same people who thing Saddam planned 9/11 and that the "Islamofascists" want to kill us because they "hate freedom."

We know that sickle cell anemia isn't "contagious," nor is it an indicator that the carrier is poor, dirty, has poor hygiene, has a poor diet, etc. It is a genetic disease that indicates only ancestry in a region plagued by malaria. It does not, Malkin-defenders, mean that they have malaria.

Given that this undesirable condition is genetic, what then might we change in our immigration policy to weed out immigrants carrying this undesirable trait? The only choice is genetic testing. Does that sound right? We should subject immigrants to testing to see if they carry the sickle cell anemia trait and then what - deny them entry to the country if they do?

Would this brave new policy extend to immigrants who are already in this country? Should we start testing retroactively?

The currency Malkin works in is xenophobia and it is unacceptable in a free, pluralistic society like our own. Those of you who worship Frau Malkin need to really think through what a world that ran under her set of rules would look and behave like. A Xenophobia Utopia.

Tell me, honestly, in comments:

Would you feel comfortable standing up at a church dinner calling for immigration reform because under our current system too many people with sickle cell anemia are coming into the country?

Would you?

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