AZ state legislature passed a bill that makes it a state crime to be an "illegal immigrant" in Arizona and gives the police the power and responsibility to question anyone who looks "reasonably suspicious" and ask to see their documentation papers. Translation : brown people might be illegal, so it's okay to pull them over and demand proof that they're not. But don't worry, it's not just because someone's brown that they might be "illegal," as California Republican Representative Brian Bilbray explains: "They will look at the kind of dress you wear, there is a different type of attire, there is a different type of -- right down to the shoes, right down to the clothes." Whew, am I relieved! It won't just be racial, but class-based and culture-based profiling too!
Two not-white friends of mine have experienced racial profiling by the police IN THE PAST WEEK here in NC. It disgusts and terrifies me that as a white person, I will never be pulled over or stopped on the street just because of my color, but my partner might, because she's (gasp!) brown. This is a slippery-slope bill that, if signed into law, will legalize racial and class-based profiling, violate the civil rights of millions, and breed race- and color-based hatred.
President Obama finally weighed in on the bill today, taking a stance against it. While ironically attending a naturalization ceremony for several "illegal" US SOLDIERS, Obama said that the law would "threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans." Yup.
In an email I got from Traction (an awesome progressive young folks' group in Durham) today, a friend writes:
Tal vez pensamos, "O, eso a mi no me afecta." Tal vez no nos damos cuenta que SI nos afecta, porque cuando le niegan los derechos humanos a un pequen~o grupo de gente solo poorque lucen diferentes, es solo el principio. Si no actuamos, despues nos tocara a nosotros.
[Maybe we think, "Oh, that doesn't affect me." Maybe we don't realize that it DOES affect us, because when human rights are denied to a small group of people just because they look different, that's only the beginning. If we don't act now, it will be our turn next.]
These words really rang true to me, and prompted me to action. If we allow police to demand papers from brown people with "illegal immigrant shoes" today, what will we allow tomorrow? Requiring a proof-of-straightness test before adopting a child? "Suspicious" and "Non-suspicious" lines at the airport?
At this point, the AZ bill has been passed by the state legislature and is on the desk of the governor, who can either sign it, veto it, or let it pass into law unsigned. I emailed her today to urge her to veto this racist, rights-denying bill. It's not too late to add your voice to the opposition here: http://presente.org/ref/ad/31/
UPDATE 4:40 PM: Arizona Governor Jan Brewer says she will sign the bill into law. Guess we can look forward to hearing from the ACLU soon.
It's hard to believe that there's good in every person when so many lawmakers can get together on something like this. I hope it's quickly undone. Thanks for blogging about it.
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