There is still a lot of attention being put on Arizona’s racist anti-immigration law, but what can we do if we are not in Arizona or even the USA? A lot of people have decided to boycott the state, and there is mounting pressure for others to follow suit. Boycotting Arizona will definitely have an impact on their tourism, which is a big source of revenue for the state, and also bring attention to the issue and keep the debate going. There are pretty divided opinions on this law, which may be surprising to some, but immigration has always been a very touchy subject in the public sphere. I have always found this to be very peculiar seeing as how we are all immigrants on this continent (minus the native americans of course), and that we do not encourage people to take the steps to improve their lives is beyond me. Especially with the issue of the Mexican/American border, should we not want to help and welcome people who are trying to escape poverty, corrupt governments, and even the atrocities that are being done to Guatemalans, and in other southern regions of Mexico. The debate however continues, many of us ask ourselves “What can I do to help raise awareness and show my dissent against this law?” There are many ways of course (starting a blog, creating community groups to raise awareness in your community, and of course boycotting Arizona), the boycott of Arizona is picking up some steam with a new collective of artists that are speaking out!
The Sound Strike is a collective of many diverse artists that are boycotting Arizona and asking people to follow suit, the site is maintained by Zach de la Rocha (of Rage Against the Machine fame). On their site you are able to sign a petition to repeal SB 1070, it also has a very up to date news feed to help people stay informed on actions that are being done, and also encourages people to join in actions against people who are spreading hate in the media (for example O’Reilly and his immigrant crime slurs). This movement is crucial seeing as this is one of the most important struggles for human rights of our generation, hopefully this will also help put pressure on the Obama administration to use its executive branch authority to prevent the implementation of this unjust law. Will this boycott yield results? It has at least sparked a heated debate in the public sphere which is necessary!
Please go sign the petition to repeal SB 1070 and invite all like-minded people to do the same, we have to stop this now! As a Canadian I must say that this scares me because first it is Arizona, but who will be aimed next? Once racial profiling is accepted on a political level, masked as an economic and immigration issue, what’s next? This debate has definitely shown the deep-rooted racism that is still present in society, unfortunately people do not remember that we are all immigrants (guilty of the genocide of the native American population). Also what is important to remember is that Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, California were all Mexico until it was taken by force during the American “Expansion”. I encourage you to tell others to boycott, for example, there is a campaign to pressure the Vans Warped Tour from passing through Arizona this summer. I am sure that most of the bands on the bill would agree with this and help send a message to the government of Arizona that we do not agree with what is happening and it must change! “It has to start sometime, it has to start somewhere, what better place than here, what better time than now” – Zach de la Rocha
Tell the Warped Tour to say no to Arizona:
Vans
15700 Shoemaker Avenue
Santa Fe Springs, California 90670
U.S.A.
Telephone: (562) 565-8267
Fax: (562) 565-8406
http://www.vans.com
The site to encourage Vans to boycott Arizona also has a complete list of all the corporate sponsors involved in the tour, let put some pressure on them to also ask Kevin Lyman to say no to Arizona until there is real change. There is also a great list of non-Arizona vacation spots that you can choose as your destination this summer!