Next month, another advertisement will run in E Magazine by anti-immigrant group Negative Population Growth (NPG). This one is unique in its toned down message, but the tactic is not new. It is a part of an attempt to reach out to environmental audiences and make bigotry palatable for them. NPG is using a toned down message to advertise a “national population policy.”
E Magazine is serving as a platform for the promotion of U.S. population stabilization by white nationalists and anti-immigration groups. NPG’s advertisement in E Magazine reads, “Simply put, overpopulation is the biggest threat to a safe environmental future.”
NPG’s advertisement continues,
“This year, Negative Population Growth celebrates our 39th anniversary working in partnership with tens of thousands of Americans who understand the dangers of Too Many People. We’ll be working diligently to expand our valuable educational projects to get more students involved in the fight to protect their future; fund our important and informative research; take our message to millions more citizens to encourage them to join in this battle; and put pressure on all elected leaders to work together to enact a realistic and workable national population policy.”
When contacted about the Negative Population Growth advertisement, Publisher of E Magazine Doug Moss told us in an email:
“The NPG ads in question, on the surface, do not say anything incendiary or offensive so, like the New York Times, we allow organizations and companies to make their positions known on the space they pay for provided they don’t cross the line into hate-filled messages…In a way, it’s our role as a media outlet to allow different points of view to be heard. By disallowing them they then don’t get challenged, which they need to be.”
But he stops short of saying where and who will challenge them. The best way to challenge groups like NPG is to look at the roots of the organization and the real motives behind their call for a “national population policy.”
Not surprisingly, white nationalist John Tanton, the architect of the modern day anti-immigrant movement, has helped NPG channel legitimate environmental concerns into bigotry. Tanton launched Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and U.S. Inc. 30 years ago. From there, he has seeded most of today’s anti-immigration groups, including Negative Population Growth (NPG), Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR), NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS).
Negative Population Growth is directly financed by Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). NPG president, Donald Mann, the head of Negative Population Growth even stated, “We should give incentives to low-income people who agree to sterilization.”
These patterns of bigotry and racism will not go unnoticed in the environmental community. Negative Population Growth should not be permitted to advertise in progressive environmental magazines like E Magazine. We must read between the lines of advertisements like these. Negative Population Growth and its mainstreamed bigotry should not slip through cracks.
The environmental community is becoming more aware of these manipulative advertising campaigns that scapegoat immigrants as a way to discuss population growth. And environmentalists are taking a stand against them.