Arizona: This Is What Apartheid Looks Like

Those who think that there's an immigration crisis
in
Arizona are correct; however, this is but part of the story. The truth
is, a
civilizational clash is being played out in the same state in which the
state
legislature questions the birthplace and legitimacy of President Barack
Obama and where Sen. John McCain competes with Senate hopeful, J.D.
Hayworth, to see who is the most anti-immigrant.

It is also the same state that several years ago,
denied a
holiday for Martin Luther King Jr., and that today permits virtually
anyone --
on the basis of trumped-up fear -- to carry concealed weapons anywhere.

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.

SB 1070 brings us to a moral precipice. After World
War II,
a consensus developed here that it had been wrong to have incarcerated
the
Japanese in internment camps because such action was morally wrong.
Virtually
no one had the courage to assert this while it was happening. Law
enforcement
has that chance today, to refuse to obey SB 1070 that is both, morally
repugnant and outside of the U.S. Constitution.

Regarding the larger civilizational struggle, the
context is
akin to when Europeans first came to this continent. The conquistadors
came for
gold, land and bodies (slaves). The friars, on the other hand, came for
souls.
Similarly, the migra and extremist legislators want bodies deported; the
state school
superintendent, Tom Horne, wants souls.

Last year, the state legislature attempted to
eliminate
Ethnic Studies from the state's K-12 curriculum. The real target was
Tucson
Unified School District's Mexican American Studies (MAS) program. After
young
students ran from Tucson to Phoenix in 115 degree heat, the bill was
defeated.
This year, a similar, yet more preposterous bill is back. HB 2281 seeks
to
outlaw curriculum that is anti-American and that advocates the violent
overthrow of the U.S. government. The bill creates a mechanism by which
books
will be judged to be in compliance. American Indian and African American
classes are exempted and thus the clear target again is the MAS program.
Horne
is on record claiming that only things from Western Civilization
(Greco-Roman) should
be taught in Arizona schools. Pre-Colombian Indigenous knowledge from
this
continent -- the foundation for the highly successful MAS program -- is
considered
outside of Western Civilization.

Amid the immigration crisis, the legislature is
slated to also
pass HB 2281 this week. This conjures up the line from the movie, The
Other Conquest: "They came for our
souls, but they didn't know where to look."

President Obama and Congress may yet nullify SB
1070 and
similar bills nationwide, but this will not discourage those who
continue to
want our bodies... and souls.