Separating Parents & Children
“Moore’s photo served to educate and galvanize the public in relation to immigration issues. Does the fact that the toddler was not separated from her mother matter, given that thousands of other children were? (Lauricella, 2018)”
Once upon a time, I went to a shopping mall with my mom. We stopped by the Walmart inside the mall to pick up groceries. As we entered the snacks section, I went to go pick up my favourite snack, Dunkaroos. For a split second, I was in one section picking up my snack, and my mom did not notice that I was not beside her. At that moment, I turned around and didn’t see anyone and ran from one section of the grocery store to the next. That moment was when I realized that my mom had left me in the store, thinking I was with her, and I even thought she abandoned me. I started calling out loud for her to hear me, “Amma, Amma,” which means mother in my mother tongue. The silence continued, and I realized when I didn’t see anyone searching for me and that no one heard my plea. I felt devastated like the world was crashing down. I fell on my knees and began to cry out loud until one of the clerks found me crying. I told her about my situation, and she took me to the front office, and I waited. Through the announcements, she had called my mom, and a few minutes later, she came from the dairy products section, running to hug me. She apologized and said sorry, she thanked the clerk, and the nice clerk gave me a treat. I imagine any toddler at the border crossing with their parents to a new country, even if it is illegal, and they are separated from their parents for a split second.
In June 2018, John Moore shot a photo of a devastated child that was separated from her mother. This photo educated the public about the immigration issues that happen every day. Although this photo also reveals that the child was not separated, the issue that remains largely is that thousands of parents and children are separated from each other. No toddler should be separated from their parents. John Moore did a brave thing by enlightening the public because people should know that many cases where a child and their parents are separated. As Lauricella quotes in this week’s case study, there were “government-issued photographs of children in cage-like pens in detainee centers, [and] the photo on the cover of Time served as a poignant representation of the difficulties experienced by undocumented immigrants” (Lauricella, 2018). Putting kids in cage-like pens dehumanizes them, and, in the future, they can be traumatized by these incidents. Treating kids as lab rats is an unjustifiable crime. Haag (2019) wrote an article stating that many immigrant children have reported being sexually assaulted in detainees’ centers. Furthermore, the federal government's current count is “more than 4,500 complaints in four years about the sexual abuse of immigrant children who were being held at government-funded detention facilities” (Haag, 2019). Sexual assault can include rape, and to commit such an act against a minor or child is wrong and disgusting.
The photograph published by John Moore is not about the two-year toddler being separated from her mother, even if it was fake. The fact is that he uncovered a bigger issue in a smaller situation. John Moore spread massive awareness to America that children are being separated from their parents because they are entering the country illegally. Whether they are entering illegally, they should be treated with proper care and respect. The people fleeing are doing so for a better future and in search of a better homeland. Moore argued his defence of shooting the photograph stating “he believes that his job as a photojournalist is to inform and report what is happening and that when he took the photo, he feared that the child and her mother would be separated in the detainment process” (Lauricella, 2019). The citizens have the right to know because that is the point of a journalist to bring awareness. Instead of making the illegal immigrants understand the situation, the border security guards are separating their sons and daughters from them. John Moore did not know if the daughter would be separated from her mother, which is why he shot the photo.
Therefore, John Moore had the right to take these photos because America's citizens must know what is going on in their borders as children and parents are being separated. Moore uncovered a wider issue in this small piece of “fake news” that he didn’t realize. The public caught interest, and awareness was spread to the nation. Thousands of cases have been brought to light about kids being separated from their parents and being sexually assaulted. If I was left for a few moments in the grocery store accidentally by my mom, imagine how the children would feel separated from their parents and taken to detainee centres?
#CommEthicsWeek7
References
Lauricella, S.,(2018) “Case Study: Does the Photo Fit the News? The Ethics of Powerful Images in the Immigration Debate”. Media Ethics Imitative, Vol 12(No #1) Retrieved from https://www.mediaethicsmagazine.com/index.php/browse-back-issues/210-fall-2018-vol/3999232-does-the-photo-fit-the-news
Haag, M. (2019, February 27). Thousands of Immigrant Children Said They Were Sexually Abused in U.S. Detention Centers, Report Says. Retrieved October 23, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/us/immigrant-children-sexual-abuse.html?auth=login-google