A number of shows had specific individuals read and respond to mean tweets about them. Recently, the Define American organization came up with a video showing undocumented Latinos reading offensive messages about them with different reactions.
Huffington Post revealed that the video, titled “Mean Tweets: Undocumented & Unafraid Edition,” is part of the #WordsMatter initiative by Define American, and inspired by the segment “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets,” on Jimmy Kimmel’s comedy show. The initiative aims to have politicians and aspiring candidates to stop using the term “illegal” when referring to undocumented immigrants.
The organization gathered five young undocumented immigrants from the San Francisco Bay Area. The participants were asked to read several mean tweets with “Everybody Hurts” by REM playing in the background. The Latinos’ reactions ranged from shocked to funny.
“I don’t know why people think Trump’s plan is so crazy. China built a wall and they have almost no illegal Mexicans,” one tweet read. The participant replied that China is in Asia while the United States is in the West, which explains the absence of Latinos in the region.
“Learned more Spanish in an hour at my hotel pool than I did in 2 years at school. #arizona #borderjumpers,” another tweet went.
A meaner tweet asked, “Afraid to go back to the third world [expletive] you crawled out of?”
“There are no illegal immigrants. They are illegal aliens. Emphasis on illegal! Criminals. Get them out of here.” The reader, however, had a kinder response, saying that green may not be his color as an alien.
Another user tweeted that he thought that they were supposed to “melt” over 94 languages in Kentucky. More tweets followed, showing discontent on the presence of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
Define American is an organization founded by Jose Antonio Vargas, who is an advocate against politicians and media agencies that use “illegal” to describe immigrants. According to Vargas, the word marginalizes and dehumanizes the pertained individuals. He said that the hope is for more people to better understand and empathize with the experience of immigrants.
"Define American is always striving to highlight stories of immigrants and explore issues of identity in America, which is why we created this piece ahead of our Define American Film Festival," Vargas told MTV.
The video was made in a lighthearted manner to counter the misinformed and stereotypical widespread comments on the internet that pertains to over 11 million undocumented immigrants, including Vargas, The Flama stated.
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