¡Alto Arizona!

Why Aren’t More Black Musicians Boycotting Arizona?

As the anti-immigrant fever spreads, which side will blacks be on?

By: Nadra Kareem | TheLoop21
Mon, 07/26/2010 - 2:30am

Black musicians have a history of challenging oppression. From Billie Holiday singing about lynching to Marvin Gaye criticizing war and Public Enemy telling us to “fight the power,” African American performers have spoken up against injustice. So, how come more blacks haven’t signed up for Sound Strike, the musicians’ boycott against Arizona?

Performers participating in the strike have agreed not to play in Arizona until the state rescinds its new law to crackdown on illegal immigration. That’s because critics of SB 1070, scheduled to go into effect July 29, say the law will lead to racial profiling and harassment of anyone with brown skin. Seems like a problem African Americans can relate to, no? But just three famous “urban” recording artists have signed up for Sound Strike: Kanye West, Chris Rock (hey, comedians cut albums, too) and The Coup. Altogether, about 200 artists are participating in the boycott.

So, what’s the deal? Do contemporary black musicians fear that expressing their political views will alienate fans? Seriously, Kanye has yet to live down his “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” remark. Or is something else to blame for the low black turnout in Sound Strike? Perhaps African Americans have neglected to sign up for the boycott because they approve of SB 1070.

Tupac Enrique with Cornel West

"If you want to stay in America you might just get deported back into colonization, however, we're headed toward Liberation!" -Tupac Enrique

Is #Mexican teen killed at #border the Emmett Till of #immigration fight?

By Dr. John D. Márquez
8:11 AM on 06/14/2010

An unidentified relative of 15 year old Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereka stands over his coffin at his home during his wake in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, late Tuesday June 8, 2010. (AP Photo)

On June 7, a 15-year-old Mexican citizen named Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca was shot to death by a border patrol agent near the El Paso-Juarez port of entry. He was allegedly hanging out near the Rio Grande with a group of friends when U.S. Border Patrol agents began firing at him and others near him. Their rationale, reportedly, was that someone was throwing rocks at them while they attempted to detain a few "illegal" immigrants who were fleeing back into Mexico. The .40 caliber bullet that killed Sergio entered his head at close range near his eye. He died instantly. He allegedly never crossed into U.S. territory.

I lost my youngest brother when he was that same age. Those kinds of deaths can rip into a family and psychologically wound them like no crisis can. So it broke my heart to consider what that family might be going through. It bothered me even more to presume how Sergio's death might be rationalized by the U.S. Border Patrol Agency and other American officials. This has indeed been the case, as their response casts blame on Sergio for his own death and attempts to garner sympathy for those officers who shot and killed him.

Kanye West Urges Artists To #Boycott #Arizona (against #SB1070)

KANYE WEST has urged his fellow musicians to boycott Arizona over the U.S. state's controversial new immigration legislation - calling on artists to follow in the footsteps of civil rights icon ROSA PARKS.

Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha is leading a campaign against Arizona's recently passed law, which makes failure to carry immigration documents a crime.

Cypress Hill, Juanes, Massive Attack, Jack Black, filmmaker Michael Moore and De La Rocha's bandmates have also joined the campaign.

And West is backing the action, insisting performers should not play any shows in the state as a mark of protest - comparing it to civil rights activists who boycotted buses in Alabama after African-American Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in 1955.

The Stronger hitmaker says, "When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, they arrested her. As a result, people got together and said, 'We are not going to ride the bus until they change the law.' It was this courageous action that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott.

"What if we got together, signed a collective letter saying, 'We're not going to ride the bus', saying 'We are not going to comply. We are not going to play in Arizona. We are going to boycott Arizona?!'"

(via Contactmusic.com)

Toki Wright - By the Time I Get to #Arizona 2010 (#SB1070)

TheRealRhymesayers — May 13, 2010 — Download "By the Time I Get to Arizona 2010" :: http://is.gd/c8NXA

Dear Friends, Family, and Allies,

On Friday, April 23rd 2010 at approximately 1:30pm Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona signed into law the most aggressive bill against undocumented residents in the United States. Under Senate Bill 1070 (SB 1070) local police departments have been given the authority to identify, detain, and deport anyone they deem to be illegally in the US based solely on their suspicion. Yet we ask, "what does illegal look like?"

We the people believe that this is not only a decision deeply rooted in racism, but also a political plot to cause disruption between the State and Federal government at the expense of hard working families. The same stigma that has plagued people of color in unfair hiring and housing practices, education, police profiling and more has now been passed into so-called "law." Law is nothing but an opinion reinforced by intimidation. Also, how can you call someone else illegal when you live on stolen land?

We won't take this sitting down. Resist. Fight.

In Solidarity,

Toki Wright
Rhymesayers/Soultools

The Truth Shall Not be Spoken in #Arizona

As Arizona moves past the “tipping point” of non-white population, its government scrambles to safeguard historical white lies from exposure by public school ethnic studies programs. The governor “intends to wipe the white historical slate clean of actual genocides, enslavements, land piracies, and all manner of crimes against darker peoples.” The truth shall not be spoken in Arizona.”

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

“The truth shall not be spoken in Arizona, if it is detrimental to the reputation and sensibilities of white people.”

The State of Arizona has very ambitious goals. It will not be satisfied simply to impose a kind of apartheid system in which Latino-looking persons have no rights that a policeman is bound to respect. Oh no, Arizona’s legislature and governor have a grander plan, a much larger vision to rewrite history so as to place white people back where they think they belong: at the unchallenged center of all things worth knowing and learning. In order to do that, it is necessary to erase and outlaw the past and present of those who are not white. Governor Jan Brewer thinks she can whitewash history and put barbed wired around the present and the future with the stroke of a pen.In signing what is effectively a ban on teaching any version of history other than the approved, white version, in elementary and secondary public schools, the governor seeks to impose an ethnic cleansing of the mind – a kind of official genocide of past generations. She intends to wipe the white historical slate clean of actual genocides, enslavements, land piracies, and all manner of crimes against darker peoples. The truth shall not be spoken in Arizona, if it is detrimental to the reputation and sensibilities of white people. Apparently, the true facts of history cause white Arizona great pain, like sunlight shining on Dracula. Gov. Brewer wants to shut out the light, by shutting down ethnic studies in the classroom, making the schools safe for white lies.

Racist #Arizona Law (#SB1070) Criminalizes “Being” While Brown

Arizona has virtually criminalized “being” while brown. Its new racist laws require police to profile and stop anyone who “looks like” an undocumented immigrant. Even police chiefs across the country, who know they cannot police communities that won't talk to them, are denouncing this racist, unjust and downright foolish law.

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

The new Arizona laws are only the latest manifestations of racist and xenophobic white American hatred toward immigrants. They won't be the last. Anyone who doubts this, or encourages others to doubt it is a racist fool, is allowing herself to be fooled, is trying hard to fool somebody else, or some combination of the above.

For all practical purposes, the state of Arizona has now criminalized “being” while brown.

Arizona law now requires teachers to compile lists of suspected immigrant children. It directs emergency rooms to deny care to those who cannot prove citizenship or legal residence. It requires everyone to carry proof of citizenship or legal residence at all times, and instructs local and state law enforcement officers to detain and question any and everyone who looks or acts like they could be undocumented. Make no mistake about, this is a racist and profoundly unjust law that everyone should disrespect and disobey.

There are No Such People as Illegals” and No Such Things as “Illegal Aliens”

by BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

It's been said before, but some things are worth saying again and again until we get them right. So everybody repeat after me: There are no such people as “illegals” and there are no such things as “illegal aliens.” The terms “illegals” and “illegal aliens” are nothing but good old fashioned hundred percent white American hate speech, and any time we allow a friend, enemy, family member or co-worker to utter either in our presence without rebuke or reproach, gentle or otherwise, we are co-signing American white nationalism and white racism, pure and simple. And as black people, when has that ever been in our interest?

Language is a lot more than thinking out loud. Language sets the boundaries for which thoughts are permissible and which thoughts are, well, unthinkable. People can't be stripped of their human rights unless we invent the language that makes them subhumans, or non humans. Aliens. That's why white American nationalists insist on calling brown people “aliens,” and “illegals,” and insist that everybody follow their lead. It's a lead to a place we must not, we dare not go.

The Usual Suspects: Arizona and the Black/Latino Divide

by Sikivu Hutchinson

“When it comes to immigration rights and reform, there is a pronounced disconnect between black leadership and average black folk.”

As soon as Arizona’s fascist anti-immigrant SB1070 legislation passed, black civil rights leaders from Jesse Jackson to California Assembly member Karen Bass roundly condemned it. The toxic national climate couldn’t be more primed for this law. In recent months, the high octane atmosphere of jingoistic racism, xenophobia and Manifest Destiny posturing amongst white zealots and the legislators who shill for them has become standard order. Now that the nation is in an uproar over SB1070, civil rights coalitions have begun trying to mobilize African American opposition to the Bill by linking black social justice activism with the immigrant rights movement.

However, when it comes to immigration rights and reform, there is a pronounced disconnect between black leadership and average black folk. In the L.A. African American Conservative Examiner respondents expressed support for SB1070. One believed that if similar laws were enacted in California it would be a deterrent to attacks on African Americans by Mexican immigrants. On the liberal to moderate The Grio website some black posters sounded off about bearing the brunt of racial discrimination, yet saw little connection between their experiences and an authoritarian crackdown on Arizonans of color under the legislation. Living elbow to elbow with Latinos in the same socioeconomically depressed communities, black anxiety over interracial violence and social/demographic usurpation by Latinos in the low wage job sector has intensified. In cities where black and Latino day laborers compete for construction and home improvement jobs, white hiring preferences for Latinos have ignited controversy over racist stereotypes about lazy blacks versus hardworking Mexicans. In Los Angeles communities where predominantly black neighborhood schools have become majority Latino, social and classroom segregation between the two groups is a hard reality. The prevalence of Latino anti-black prejudice, ranging from “pigmentocracy” bias to caricaturing blacks as backward and “ghetto,” is a recurring complaint among some African American youth. Further, the perception that Latino organizations don’t support African American activism around such issues as racial profiling and police brutality has long fueled mainstream black wariness of black/Latino coalition building.