White Washing

When I first heard about the new Arizona immigration law I was appalled. The very idea that an American citizen could be pulled over by a policeman for no reason and forced to provide proof of citizenship is so 1930’s Nazi Germany and even apartheid era South Africa. The weekend the bigoted Governor of Arizona signed this law into effect we had company over and in discussion I was practically alone in my assessment that this law was put in place to target people of color. In support of their argument for this law people trotted out the same old “we gotta do something about all the illegal immigrants” to which I agreed. We need legislation to combat the affects of illegal immigrant on our economy. However, to target someone based on what they look like is out and out racial profiling. And to make it into a law is nothing less than Institutionalized Racial Profiling. How dare they assume that based on someone’s ethnicity they may be in this country illegally and that assumption alone is enough to harass them. You can be sure there will be no stopping of Irish, Italian, German or even Canadian immigrants by Arizona law enforcement. By turning us against each other, white America has succeeded in convincing minorities that we should view one as better than the other. If they start by going after the Latinos, what’s to stop them from targeting us next? Well guess what? That same bigoted racist governor of Arizona just signed another law.

The new law makes it illegal to teach ethnic study courses in Arizona public schools. The reason? State schools chief Tom Horne says these programs teach minorities that they are oppressed by white people…yeah, he actually said that. I don’t know about you but growing up I never needed a special course to teach me of this oppression, I saw it every day and quite frankly I don’t think things have changed all that much so the students of today see it as well. Horne, a Republican running for attorney general, also said that ethnic study programs promote "ethnic chauvinism" and racial resentment toward whites. Where did this man come from?

According to the Tucson Unified School District, which is the main target of Mr. Horne’s attack, they offer specialized courses in African-American, Mexican-American and Native-American studies that focus on history and literature and include information about the influence of these particular ethnic groups on American history. But with this new law they will no longer be able to include African-American slavery, the Jim Crow laws of the south, the occupation and eventual conquering of various Native-American tribes, the original Latin-American settlers or the contributions of any of these ethnic groups to the building of this nation. How is this a true teaching of American history? It seems as though the state of Arizona wants to literally “white wash” American history.

This is only the beginning folks and there is definitely a movement taking place. As white Americans face the realization of becoming the minority in this country, they are fighting to maintain political dominance. Just like Nazi Germany this movement targets a popular criticism and builds from there. For the Nazi’s it was the persecution of homosexuals which led to the same for Jews. For the Tea Party and those akin to their ideology it begins with illegal immigration and ethnic studies. Who and what will they target next?