Protestors Protest Unfair Descrimination By Descriminating Unfairly
Arizona passed an immigration-enforcement law last week making it justifiable for police to stop and demand documentation from anyone they suspect of being an alien “if reasonable suspicion exists” that they are in the state illegally. Already Senate Bill 1070 is considered in many parts of the country a wholly bigoted enactment, of which many throughout the nation have taken to protesting. The rationality behind some of the protests, however, remains suspect.
On Thursday, the Arizona Diamondbacks were in Chicago to play the Cubs. Not coincidentally, a pack of protesters picketing against Bill 1070 were stationed outside Wrigley Field.
… Because Justin Upton helped convince the senate to pass the bill? No? Well, then why the protesters in front of the Friendly Confines?
“The team is an ambassador for Arizona,” Tony Herrera, representative of ‘Boycott Arizona 2010’ said. “And the owner, Mr. (Ken) Kendrick, is a big supporter of Republican politics. This new law was a Republican bill. Until the law is changed, there should be protests.”
There should be protests. Next up should be the one where no one watches the movie “Psycho,” because it was shot in Phoenix and stars Arizona native Anthony Perkins. After that, the nation should turn its back on Jimmy Eat World and the Gin Blossoms, bands both born in the A-Z. What’s that? The nation has already stopped paying attention to them? Well … good.
As far as I can tell Jamie O’Neal’s “There Is No Arizona” is still perfectly acceptable to listen to.
Boycotting anything simply because it is connected to an entire state is a ludicrously misdirected attempt at forcing a repeal. (SIDE NOTE: Can we not agree that if the citizens were to start boycotting everything produced by a state simply because of what goes on in it, hat we’d start with Indiana?) The reasons, in this case, for the protest are also as misdirected in its facts as it is in its philosophy. According to the D-backs’ vice president of communications, Shaun Rachau, Kendrick has publicly opposed Senate Bill 1070 and is one of nearly 75 owners anyway, many of whom have not contributed a penny to the Republican Party.
“The D-backs have never supported (Senate) Bill 1070,” Rachau said, “nor has the team ever taken a political stance or position on any legislation.”
The undertones of bigotry and support of racial profiling enacted in this bill have forced Arizona and many of its public representatives, like the Diamondbacks, into a situation of which they were unprepared and certainly undeserving. Yet that hasn’t stopped citizens like Herrera from demanding satisfaction from such public organizations.
“The fact that Kendrick has supported the Republican agenda is significant to us,” he said. “We’re getting a lot of response from across the country. We’re asking for a meeting (with the team) on May 7 with people who are flying in from across the country. We want to talk to the team, but, you know, they do represent Arizona.”
What are these people jet-setting from around the country planning on asking the team, exactly? I’d love to meet Dan Haren, but not to discuss an immigration law of which he wasn’t a part. This kind of thinking is baffling. Yes, the Diamondbacks are a well-known Arizona-based organization. Yes, part of the team’s ownership has contributed to the Republican party (it’s a moderate red state, don’t forget), but leave ‘em alone. The reality of the situation is that none of the team’s players or staff have any more to do with this situation than private citizens. Yes, I’m sure Juan Guitierrez and Gerardo Parro have opinions on the matter, but what else can they give you? And why is picketing outside Wrigley or Citi or Coors Fields going to stop profiling in the American Southwest?
Americans are finally compelled to action and this is how they express themselves? By boycotting a team on a national level because it falls within the state’s 114,000 square mile territory?
Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) has the right idea. Don’t punish things connected to the state, remove things connected to the state. He’s already delivered a letter to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig requesting he move the 2011 All-Star Game out of Phoenix.
“MLB has a very loud megaphone,” Serrano said in a statement earlier this week, “and their rejection of Arizona’s action would be an important demonstration to Arizona that we do not tolerate such displays of intolerance in our nation.”
In a similar vein, the World Boxing Council said it will not schedule future bouts featuring Mexican fighters in Arizona. The organization has already gone so far as to have the ban approved by the Federation of Boxing Commissions of Mexico. It will be enacted May 1.
Taking action is a wonderful option empowered to the American public, but there are effective ways to do it and illogically inept ways to do it. Write your local government. Heck, write Arizona’s government. Initiate your time in any of the hundreds of civil rights groups protesting 1070. But c’mon Goofuses, let the players play.
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Top photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports via the AP
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Arizona lawmakers have approved changes to the state’s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants. The changes were designed to answer charges made by protesters that it will lead to racial profiling by police. The original law stated police can conduct an immigration status check during any quote “lawful contact,” if they have reasonable suspicion a person is an illegal immigrant. It replaces “lawful contact” with “lawful stop, detention or arrest,” clarifying police may not stop people without cause. The revised law also removes the word “solely” from the phrase “The attorney general or county attorney shall not investigate complaints that are based solely on race, color or national origin.” Read the new Arizona Immigration Law