Arizona and racism

A new law was approved in Arizona last May that will make it legal for police to pull over anyone whom they believe to be an illegal immigrant, based only on what they look like. Should the accused not have proper identification, they can be arrested and subsequently deported.

This law, in theory, should help slow the number of immigrants that come illegally to Arizona, and that should help stop the loss of jobs to the undocumented. Unfortunately that is not the case. This law will not stop immigrants from coming, and if anything, they will choose other states close to the Mexico-America border to cross in to.

This is clearly racially charged. How many illegal immigrants from Canada or European countries will be stopped? None. This law is only going to lead to authorities in Arizona pulling over those whom they simply think are from Mexico or other countries south of the border. This is a purely racist law.

To add to the wildfire of controversy in Arizona, teachers with accents can no longer teach English there. In theory, this is a decent law. Students in ESL or other English courses should have the best experience possible when learning English. Sadly this could lead to qualified instructors from other countries, or those who were raised in a home with a language other than English, being given the boot in favor of less-than-capable instructors who speak with an "American" accent.

On top of that, there is now a law that will prohibit the teaching of ethnic studies. These studies are defined as those which "promote the overthrow of the US government, promote resentment toward a race or class of people, are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group, and advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals."

This new legislation would be great if there were a problem in Arizona school districts with schools teaching classes in anarchy or racism. This is not the case. This law is aimed clearly at the Mexican-American studies programs that afforded students the opportunity to learn about the history and literature of another culture.

How is any of this fair? How can racial profiling be allowed? How can teachers be targeted for not speaking English like Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer? How can you cancel a program that taught students about a culture other than their own?

It is pure racism. It is wrong. Arizona needs to change these policies if it ever wants to regain the respect of the people. No American citizen or illegal immigrant should sit back and let this happen. Everyone needs to get up and voice their concerns over these new, terrible laws. It could only be a matter of time before other states decide to adopt these laws as well.

Be smart, write to your representative and tell them how you feel. Tell them to make sure this does not happen in your state. Don't let years of work done by great civil rights advocates go to waste just because of racist Arizona laws.

America is a country founded on immigration. To go after illegal immigrants in such a way as this is wrong. To prohibit teaching of ethnic studies is a stab at freedom of speech, and blurs the line between the Arizona government and the Nazi's silencing the Jewish people.