midnyte

So I live in AZ, ground zero for SB1070. I have to say I'm a little perturbed by what is amounting to one sided attention the national media is giving to the situation.

I want to start off by saying, I LOVE living in Arizona. I moved here by choice and every time I leave I am happy to come back. This does not mean I agree with all of the politics to come out of this state but overall, it is a great place to live. Part of what there is to love here is the rich Native American and Mexican culture. The architecture, the amazing foods and a certain level of casual, family focused living are all things I attribute to this state's Latino heritage.

Historically, the United States won the northern part of Arizona from Mexico in 1848 after the Mexican/American war. In 1853, the United States bought the rest of AZ from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase. Arizona became a territory in 1863 and became a US state in 1912.
Here is a news clip about the newest challenge filed to the SB1070 law.

This is another example of what I believe is overreaction and more racist than anything the SB1070 is going to do.

Because of the state's Mexican heritage, we have a very rich Latino culture here. We also have a HUGE population of people whose ancestry here, in this state, predates the United States entirely. We have a massive Latino population of US citizens and of Native Americans some of whom are similar in appearance to or related to Mexican and other Latin American peoples. There are SO MANY people who are culturally Hispanic US Citizens, it would be nearly impossible to racially profile anyone with any level of success. The other issue of course is the varied appearance of Latino people. My husband has an intern from Mexico, who is a Mexican citizen here legally on a student visa. The guy has blond hair, blue eyes and pale skin. If he were to over stay his visa, racially profiling him would miss the fact that he would be here illegally. I know a few European people who are here illegally and should go home and get in line with everyone else who has waited in line and jumped through the hoops to find legal ways to be here too. This isn't about heritage, this is about obeying the law.

The moment they begin truly racially profiling people or violating the rights of US citizens with this law is the moment I will be out there with my protest sign and say enough is enough. Until then, since the law is pretty much identical to the federal law we all accept as just and justly enforced, I don't really see the issue. Yes, it will be sad when the neighbors gardener gets busted because I know they are not here legally (I interviewed them and didn't hire them because I don't hire illegal workers) and their vehicle is a moving cop magnet because it is in terrible shape, held together with duct tape and bailing wire. They are a nice family, I don't dislike them as people and they have a little dog who looks identical to one of mine. Their kids sometimes come work with them and the kids are nice enough kids too. However, I'm sure there are nice families in Somalia, other countries in Africa, parts of Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union who have life WAY worse than the Hernandez family had it in Mexico. It is tragic for people in other countries too, why do the Hernandez's deserve to cut in line?

What I find rather disturbing about the protests and many news stories is how racist they seem to be. The bolded quote up there for example. When a Latino rights group claims that wording racially profiles them, isn't that assuming a stereotype about all Latino's? Because honestly, I know a LOT of Latino's and most of the ones I know speak English well, are not nervous or shifty and per the law do not overcrowd their vehicles. At the work corners, in front of the Home Depot the people who do not have proper documentation to get a regular day labor or other work, they would fit that description. And really, all you have to do is present your drives license or border crosser card or visa or passport and you have proved you are here legally and you go on your way. I have been stopped and detained a few times by the Border Patrol (federal). They have random checkpoints and I go to Mexico sometimes. I have brown eyes and being a first generation US citizen born to legal immigrant parents, I have a slight accent. This has gotten me stopped and questioned on quite a few occasions. It is annoying, but I get it, and as soon as they verify that I am not an identity thief and my ID is legit, they send me on my way. It isn't really anything. No more annoying than any other traffic stop and less bad overall because I don't get ticketed or anything.

I don't know, the whole thing is just getting really stupid. Not so much here, but the weirdly slanted national attention is just off base. I think if people lived here they would understand HOW huge our citizen Latino population is and understand how impractical racial profiling really would be in this case. I keep wanting to shout WHAT PART OF ILLEGAL DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!!! Get in line with everyone else, like my family from Germany and China did. If we had the space and resources to save the world then I'm sure we would, but we don't so since there is a limit and rules in place which filter people, everyone needs to follow those rules and go through the same filtering as everyone else has to. It isn't fair to the people who follow the law when other people break it and then get rewarded for it.

And it isn't just Mexican's and people from other Latin American Nations who come here illegally, it's lots of people. Again, I feel making this a Mexican/Latino thing is perpetuating a stereotype more than anything else.

I think overall whenever a group identifies by race and someone of that race speaks for their race it kind of is annoying. It creates that us/them mentality among people. It is so easy when a "Latino leader" says "Latino's feel bla bla bla..." to then respond with "I disagree with Latino's" when really it isn't Latino's, it is that one person and however many people actually share that person's mindset. Aside from some heritage, what does that leader really have in common with another Latino person? Probably about as much as I have in common with "White leaders" like David Duke, and that fucker doesn't speak for me, I can speak for myself. I feel these leaders are often more divisive than helpful. This is not to say I disagree with the civil rights movement, or with people's rights to protest or ask for rights, as US citizens, we do have that right as part of the first amendment. I disagree with the labeling of each group as a whole united front based on race or gender. It strips the individual of their own opinion and person. It seems counterproductive at this point when we have made such great strides at integrating people.

I have written on this before, so before flaming me, if you stumbled onto my blog, read back a few entries to get the rest of the story before you hate on me.