Arizona: This Is What Apartheid Looks Like

[kpete]

Arizona: This Is What Apartheid Looks Like

by Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez

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Welcome to Apartheid Arizona -- the land of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, "States' Rights" and a desert that has claimed thousands of migrant lives. By way of the same extremist legislature, the battle here is even much larger and more profound. This civilizational clash is being waged daily here via more bills involving who belongs, what language can be spoken here and who and what can be taught in the state's schools. This is beyond the notion of who is "legal."

Whoever said that this crisis is proof that the illegal Mexican American War never ended is partially correct because this conflict is even older than that war in which Mexico lost half its territory to the United States. The irony regarding the recently signed SB 1070 -- which permits law enforcement to question people about their citizenship, based on "reasonable suspicion" -- is that those principally targeted will be those who look the "most Hispanic."

"Looking Hispanic" has always been a misnomer; what it really means is those who are dark and short and who look the "most Indigenous." Truthfully, here in Arpaio Country, that profiling that everyone fears is already here with us. And to dispel illusions, the darkest amongst us have always been subjected to racial profiling by the "migra" and by law enforcement agencies everywhere in the country. This is true whether we've been here for a few days or for thousands of years. And to dispel further illusions, this civilizational clash alluded to is national in scope; witness the many hundreds of anti-immigrant bills nationwide since 2006. Only its epicenter is here.

What is changing with SB 1070 is that racial profiling is no longer outside of the law; here it now has legal cover. But to be sure, people of conscience will never accept it as law. And just as Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva is calling for a national and international boycott of Arizona -- many are calling on law enforcement to have the moral courage to refuse to recognize SB 1070 as a law and simply view it as a proposal until the courts decide on its constitutionality.

more:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/26-5

[bobthedrummer]

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