The editorial cartoon on April 2, “Different Priorities,” contained imagery that was quite offensive.
The cartoon depicted a character representing Democrats pointing to a cresting wave labeled “COVID,” with COVID-19 viruses popping out of the wave. In the same cartoon a character representing Republicans was depicted pointing to a cresting wave labeled “Migrants,” with people popping out of the wave.
The depiction of migrants in a similar way as pathogen is not too far from the Nazis’ characterization of Jews, Roma, and Slavs, and was right in line with statements Trump made in 2018 referring to undocumented migrants as “infesting” the U.S.
The ultimate effect of such a depiction is to imply that migrants are somehow “less human” than the rest of us.
