The anti-immigrant slur US border patrol tried to ban: 'It reflects sanctioned violence'
Source: The Guardian
The anti-immigrant slur US border patrol tried to ban: ‘It reflects sanctioned violence’
Most Americans don’t know the word, and critics say a ban won’t work – without a cultural change, ‘the sentiment remains’
Matthew Cantor in Los Angeles
@CantorMatthew
Mon 4 Mar 2024 12.00 GMT
Last modified on Mon 4 Mar 2024 13.34 GMT
More than 23 years ago, a US border patrol official issued a warning: slurs against people crossing the border would “not be tolerated”. Four years ago, the group’s parent agency issued guidance condemning one word in particular. Yet reporting last month found that it’s still being used in the agency regularly – in shockingly callous ways.
“Tonk” is used as slang for a migrant. As the reporter Roque Planas writes at HuffPost, the consensus is that it refers to the sound of a heavy object, like an agent’s flashlight, hitting a person’s head.
“I’ve never heard it being used in anything except a derogatory, mocking way by field agents when referring to migrants,” says Jacqueline Arellano of the non-profit Border Kindness, which provides migrants with supplies and legal services.
HuffPost’s reporting uncovered a raft of emails and text messages at the agency that use the word. Under the subject line “tonk”, an agent near Spokane, Washington, asked whether someone had “‘found’ that head wound with his maglite”. Another email featured a picture of a T-shirt emblazoned with the word under a picture of a flashlight. Yet another email ridiculed a colleague for “marrying a tonk” because “he can’t find a legal chick here”.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/04/border-patrol-slur-immigration
Alternate link: https://news.yahoo.com/news/anti-immigrant-slur-us-border-120028558.html
