# Dehumanizing language should not be allowed **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehumanizing-language-should-not-be-allowed/985435 **Category:** About This Message Board **Created:** [June 13, 2023, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehumanizing-language-should-not-be-allowed/985435 "2023-06-13T16:14:07Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 180
### Author: ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness) #### Post date: [June 16, 2023, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehumanizing-language-should-not-be-allowed/985435/180 "2023-06-16T02:53:05Z")
I think you’re at least partly correct (and with a cite for the US Congressional sources would agree you’re entirely correct). I’ve finally found something of a [cite](https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/09/looking-first-use-term-illegal-immigrant/323086/) that’s online (earlier, @SCAdian[referenced their offline copy of OED](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/illegals-and-invaders-should-be-moderated-as-hate-speech-in-the-context-of-immigration-debates/985244/236)), and it says: > [@](#): > > [Activist] Vargas ventured a guess on his Facebook [page](http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152115982035062&set=a.10150196493600062.442037.691900061&type=1&theater) this afternoon, pointing to a 1939 article that appeared in the _Times of London._ “The earliest recorded use I could find … was in 1939, when the London Times used the term to describe Jewish migration to Palestine,” he wrote, pasting the article to his page: > … > Not to be nitpickers, but we found an even earlier reference in [a 1937 _New York Times_ article](http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20613FD3B5E177A93CAAB178FD85F438385F9) about an 18-year-old Cuban girl who attempted suicide while being taken to Ellis Island So I withdraw that comment, and appreciate your correction. The rest of what I said–that everyone from Elie Wiesel to the AP Style Guide have objected to the term–remains intact. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dehumanizing-language-should-not-be-allowed/985435)._