Arizona: For Whites Only?

Arizona: For Whites Only? | The Atlanta Post

by R. L’Heureux Lewis

Recently, I penned a piece discussing the need for Black folks to join in with the fight against Arizona’s racist immigration bill SB 1070. My goal was to challenge Black folks, to think beyond the immediate immigration bill to the larger injustices that are taking root in Arizona. In the past few weeks, Arizona has continued to make their intentions clear. Whether you agree with SB 1070 or not, the state of Arizona has begun a march towards making the state free, open and inhabitable to Whites and closed to people of color, particularly Latinos.

Arizona is now pushing a package of policies that serve to malign, discriminate against, and reduce the freedoms of non-Whites, citizens and non-citizens alike. The signing of SB 1070 into law has increased the legal discretion and support for thinly veiled racial profiling. This week, the governor signed into law a bill that eliminated Ethnic Studies at the primary and secondary grade levels. Arizona’s Department of Education has been lobbying for the removal of teachers with strong accents or whose grammatical structure is found to be unacceptable. It would be naïve to suggest that these policies are simply about the safety, quality, and fairness as they’ve been pitched; instead they represent a concerted attempt to cleanse Arizona of ethnic influence.