Jonathan Rosa: Drop the I-Word!

Jonathan Rosa is a Linguistic Anthropology scholar at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is currently leading the “Drop the I-word” campaign, referring to the use of the term “illegal” with specific groups of immigrants in the United States. The supporters of this campaign include twenty-four other scholars, and have been in a contentious debate with the New York Times regarding the use of the term “illegal” in media and journalism.

I spoke with Jonathan for KBOO News as part of our membership drive special. While they aired the shortened version of our interview, you can listen to the extended version, including historical perspectives beginning with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Air Date: 10/5/2012 KBOONews_Jonathan_Rosa_ext

You can also access a transcript of the interview: Transcript_KBOONews_JonathanRosa_ext