The more obvious the racism, the louder the silence.
It would be difficult to contrive a more obviousexample of racial profiling than Arizona’srecently passed “Show Me Your Papers” law.
The law requires police to ask for proof ofcitizenship from anyone “where a reasonable suspicion exists that the person isan alien who is unlawfully present in the United States.”
The law drew hundreds of thousands to immigrationmarches last weekend in Milwaukeeand around the nation, the biggest Latino protests since 2005, when aRepublican-led House of Representatives passed Wisconsin Congressman JimSensenbrenner’s bill to imprison and deport more than 12 million illegalimmigrants as felons.
Calls for Big Government?
There is something about people of color crossingborders that brings out a totalitarian response in people who otherwise claimto be opposed to big government.
The same people who are opposed to governmentproviding affordable health care now want the federal government to adopt thetactics of Nazi Germany, Communist Russia and Apartheid South Africaand demand to see citizenship papers, especially from certain people.
People who cheered when President Ronald Reagandemanded the Soviet Union tear down the wall separating East and West Berlinare now willing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build a wallbetween the United Statesand Mexico.
So-called conservatives were willing to throw awaybillions of dollars on a worthless “high-tech” virtual wall that sets off“Scary Illegal Immigrant!” alerts every time the wind blows or a bunny rabbitjumps.
We blindly pour our nation’s scarce financialresources into the 15th-century Ming Dynasty idea of building a Great Wall ofUnited States to seal off our 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Meanwhile, the 5,500-mileborder on our north with Canadagoes virtually unprotected, leaving us vulnerable to ravaging hordes ofCanadians astride moose.
There’s just something a lot more frightening aboutimmigrants crossing our southern border. They come in scarier colors.
Racism is never supposed to be mentioned, however,except to deny it exists.
The Arizonalaw was even amended in the final days of the Legislature to declare that racecould not be used as a factor in raising suspicion that someone might be in thecountry illegally.
That is going to make the police training classes onhow to implement the law particularly hilarious.
Let’s see. What factors other than race coulddetermine “a reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who isunlawfully present in the United States”?
Maybe what they are eating? How they’re dressed? Dothey put their hats down on the sidewalk and dance around them?
Instead of talking about bigotry, we are told wehave to understand the pressure Arizonais under as a result of immigration. Arizona’spopulation is more than 30% Latino, after all.
Think about that for a minute. The majority incontrol of a state’s government has just declared war on a third of itscitizens.
Isn’t that going to add quite a bit of pressure toan enormous number of Arizona’scitizens? But I guess they’re not the ones that we’re supposed to care aboutand try to understand.
Minority communities will recognize another hallmarkof bigotry: group guilt for the crimes of individuals of color.
Apparently, one of the driving forces behindArizona’s draconian law were reports of a white rancher being murdered by anillegal immigrant involved in the border drug wars.
There are plenty of murders by white people inArizona, too. Some of them are involved in drugs as well. But there are nostate laws targeting the white population to punish the majority for thecriminality of its race.
Mexico has its own complaints about the border drugwars, by the way. The individuals involved come from both sides of the border,but the guns they use overwhelmingly come from the United States.
All of this may seem remote from the upper Midwest,but unfortunately it is not. Outrage over the blatant bigotry of Arizona’s lawhas reopened the national discussion over how to create a path to citizenshipfor the millions of immigrants living in the shadows in this country.
One horrific side effect of the Arizona law will beto increase the exploitation of undocumented immigrants by cutting off theirability to report crimes to police or to provide information in investigations.
And, sadly, some politicians in Wisconsin are eagerto exploit bigotry for their own political advantage without ever mentioningthe word out loud.
At a statewide Tea Party rally in March, RepublicanAttorney General J.B. Van Hollen bragged about deporting immigrants anddeclared: “America for Americans!”
Silence is complicity.
