If you haven't heard, Arizona has passed a legislation (http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=a2741157-47e9-4794-a772-7522ccd60d88) - it is to come into effect July 28, 2010 - to crack down on illegal immigration. Law Enforcement officers are allowed to question potential illegal immigrants - but based on what? Reasonable doubt? How can one tell if you are an illegal immigrant? Is it, as long as you look like you're Mexican, we are going to search you? According to the bill, one must carry some form of ID with them at all times as proof of their status. Oh really? In Chicago, a Puerto Rican man was held for THREE days in an immigration detention center by ICE officials. The ICE officials were under the pretense that he was an illegal immigrant even though he had LEGAL PAPERS. Are you serious Chicago? Racial profiling seems to run rampant in contemporary America and I believe that racial profiling is the key concept behind the Arizona immigration bill. (http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/27/immigration.wrongful.detention/?hpt=Sbin)
To make things even more controversial, Arizona has begun to demote teachers (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703572504575213883276427528.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5#articleTabs%3Darticle) who have "heavy accents or speak ungrammatical English". Honestly, really, Jan Brewer? The superintendent of Arizona state schools claims it's to "politicize the educational environment". Say what? So what they are saying is that children can't learn because of their accents? What about children who have graduated under the teachings of those teachers? Were they at an educational disadvantage that the schools have finally decided to change their hiring policy to "You must speak with an American accent"? What happened to EOE? Demoting teachers. Really?
There is currently a bill introduced to the floor that Citizenship-by-birth should be looked over again and changed to "if you are not an American citizen and have a child in an American territory, your child shouldn't get American citizenship because you are not American." (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127093634) This targets specifically illegal immigrants and to-be American citizens. What the hell is wrong with America? The land of the free, the land of opportunities. This intelligent man, Randy Terrill, Representative of Oklahoma, states that "Currently, if you have a child born to two alien parents, that person is believed to be a U.S. citizen... When taken to its logical extreme, that would produce the absurd result that children of invading armies would be considered citizens of the U.S."
I can only say from these articles that Right-Wing America is starting to fear their marginality in U.S. culture and taking their fear out through their positions in government to limit "minorities" - especially people of Hispanic origin (but it encompasses us all) in society. This subtle racism goes unchecked and when it is, it is marginalized in the media. To acknowledge that racism is still alive and harming even the most basic rights of human beings, we should all take steps to rectify it. E-mail your state representatives, congressmen/women, join anti-racist societies, e-mail the President, join demonstrations.
Michael Koh
This is an excellent contemporary example to discuss. It's interesting to see how Sethi's observations about issues surrounding accents come into play here. It seems as though, in effect, this bill will not be about cracking down on illegal immigrants, but about giving law enforcement officials the legal ability to unjustly target people of color. It is also sad that Arizona doesn't realize that having an instructor from a different culture could actually enhance a student's learning experience as opposed to diminish it, but giving that student perspectives they may not have considered otherwise.
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