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Paper retracts racist cartoon

Community anger and demonstrations along the Michigan Avenue shopping district forced the Dearborn Press and Guide newspaper to publish an apology for a racist, anti-immigrant cartoon published in June. The cartoon implied that Latin@s came to the United States for welfare. But on June 25 and July 2, protesters demand ed more than a small apology. They want the newspaper to publish a series of articles accurately depicting the contributions and lives of Mexican workers and also give them proof that the person responsible was fired.

The cartoon appeared near the beginning of the summer, when migrant workers and their families following the fruit and vegetable harvest come north into Michigan. While heroic organizing by the United Farmworkers Union and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee improved conditions for farm workers, the work is still difficult, dangerous and very low paid.

The paper insulted not only migrant work ers but immigrant workers from Mexico and other South and Central Amer ican countries and the Middle East. These immigrants are beginning to change Dearborn from the exclusive racist stronghold founded by Henry Ford into a multi-national community. On June 25 the community met at ACCESS, the Arab Community Center For Eco nomic and Social Services.

African American drivers passing the demonstration honked their solidarity and called out, “They’re racist against us, too.” To this day it is still commonly considered risky for African American men in particular to be in Dearborn after dark. Demonstration organizers vowed to continue the fight against racism in all its forms.