SPECIAL REPORT
College Park, Maryland
September 28, 2010
Arizona, Institutional Racism & Assimilation
By: Solomon Comissiong
The Southwestern US state of Arizona has recently garnered a lot of public attention for its blatantly racist legislation. In April (2010) the closet racist governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, signed into law SB-1070. SB-1070 was paraded around by her administration as some sort of law aimed at reducing the number of so-called “illegal immigrants” from coming into Arizona. As if signing into state law a bill that condones the racial profiling of people of color was not xenophobic enough; she helped (along with Arizona education chief: Tom Horne) push through a law that significantly prevents the progressive teaching of “Ethnic Studies” within Arizonan public schools. This ban states that a school will lose state based funding if they offer courses that “promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.” That particular detail within the so-called “law” should tell us more of what is wrong with the state of Arizona, and America in general, than anything else. The recent trends within Arizona are not particularly surprising to the author; however, for many living in denial about the institutionally racist nature of the US, I can see where this has jolted their illusionary American Dream.
Racism and white supremacy are as American as apple pie. The two vile systems have long been a part of America’s identity dating back to the arrival of the first European “settlers”. Coming to a land that was not theirs, Europeans responded to the hospitality of the Indigenous populations with violence, terror and genocide. They systematically destroyed millions upon millions of Native Americans from coast to coast. This is the unmitigated truth; however the truth is routinely omitted from America’s so-called History classes. The glorification of those who perpetrated the mass killing of people of color are commonly found in US elementary, middle and high school libraries. Many of the vile white men responsible for the genocide of tens of millions of Native Americans, and over one hundred million Africans, are customarily celebrated as deities.
The mass theft and plunder of countless acres of land has been rewarded with holidays and Hollywood screenplays. These tales have permanently been written into history textbooks honoring the European murderers as heroes. The books, like the pathetic American educational system, have been written, controlled and operated by white people who are more interested in upholding America’s racist system than they are with giving their children a chance at humanity. They ostensibly want their children to be uncompassionate with the continued plight of their black and brown skinned peers. They want their children to never know the truth for if they did, they might be compelled to destroy the root causes of institutionalized racism and white supremacy. Many white-American parents could give a damn how their actions retard their children from gaining any semblance of humanity, thus they continuously inject hatred and lies into their fledgling psyches. Without any kind of honest and progressive intervention most will be destined to follow the same ignorant and racist ways of their fathers and mothers.
Racism and white supremacy are passed down from generation-to-generation in the same manner that wealth derived from slavery has been passed down from shiftless European human traffickers to their contemporary descendants. The egregious crimes against humanity that many white Americans committed are secrets not to be told within classrooms. They are the secrets that explain the blatant injustices, societal inequities, and crimes committed against people of color today. These secrets explain root causes of the mass incarceration and poverty of black and brown people in America. They explain the systematic targeting of black communities for police terror, brutality and even murder. These clandestine historical facts lay the ground for justice to be served, and wrongs to be righted, in an effort to bring about an actual equitable society. However, without mainstream exposure, the chances of America ever developing itself into a humane society become less and less likely. If the US ever came clean about its reprehensible past it would have to cease the contradictory lies spread domestically, as well as globally. America would have to address the fact that it is a leading human rights violator throughout the globe. US government officials would have to address their country’s continued exploitation of land and people. In essence, the US government, and all its organs, would have to take a long hard look in the mirror, reassess itself, and either change or face the demands of a newly edified populous. At this time the ruling class in America wants none of the above, therefore they continue to dumb down and obfuscate their citizenry day by day.
This is ultimately the basis of the recent racist laws in Arizona. Poisoning the minds of children ensures that most of them will likely never know the truth about their country’s nefarious past, or present. Many white children will become white adults fulfilling the evil will of their forefathers. They will ultimately, without any intervention, parrot the racist actions of their parents. Laws like SB-1070 may soon become the norm. If this happens, the continued mistreatment of Mexican, African and Central American immigrants will continue unabated. The virulently racist and inhuman labeling of Latinos as “illegal aliens” subconsciously adds justification, for many, to demonize them. The twisted irony is that if anyone could be labeled as illegal it would be the Europeans that stole this land from the ancestors of many of those same Latinos. At one time, before so-called westward expansion, much of the Southwest, Midwest and California belonged to the Indigenous people of Mexico. From Canada to Mexico, all of North America was the rightful land of the hundreds of Indigenous tribes. It is pathetic that some dim witted governor of Arizona, and her socially limited minions, feel as though they have any right to racially profile anyone on the basis of guarding the Arizona border. If anyone should be guarding anything, it should be the rightful owners of that land from the likes of racist social misfits like Jan Brewer. Arizona is much more the land of Indigenous Mexicans than it is Governor Brewer’s and her band of racist white Arizonans. The troll-like Maricopa County sheriff, Joseph M. “Joe” Arpaio, who promotes himself as “America’s Toughest Sheriff” should be deported to whatever cesspool he came from. He should be brought up on charges for his inhumane treatment of inmates and Mexican immigrants.
The wave of racist laws emerging from Arizona is a byproduct of the larger American system. Arizona has simply made into law an Ethnic Studies policy that has been practiced, nationwide, for hundreds of years. Those who have failed to notice this are likely products of the assembly line styled American educational system. It is a system that frequently perpetuates extremely racist and white supremacist ideologies. Critical thought and respect for non-European cultures is strictly frowned upon. Texas, another state originally belonging to Mexico, has recently had its education board co-opted by a group of right-wing, racist, religious zealots. This group of mental midgets, led by the likes of Cynthia Dunbar, is literally re-writing the already limited US history textbooks. They want to make the textbooks even more white supremacist, historically inaccurate, and cultish. With racist and xenophobic intellectual neophytes controlling the public education of entire states; is it even a wonder why many American youth maintain an incredibly limited understanding of the world we live in. They are mimicking the limited characteristics of their parents. The poorly hidden secret is out—-the ugly American is cultivated and produced in none other than the “good” ole US of A.
Member of the Texas Educational School Board, Cynthia Dunbar recently said, “We are fighting for our children’s education and our nation’s future. In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections.” As they say, “the proof is in the pudding”. Dunbar was in no way, shape, form or fashion referring to black and Latino/a children when she said, “We are fighting for our children’s education and our nation’s future.” She was undoubtedly referring to white children. Left in the hands of racist troglodytes like Dunbar, children of color will be in prisons, working in Wal-Mart, or on the front lines of an imperialist military. The “free enterprise system” that she speaks of is capitalism, which also happens to be the driving force behind the prison and military industry complex as well as evil corporations like Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is the same corporation that snaked its way into a predominately black public school in Detroit as a means to replace literature courses with lesson plans training the youth how to properly fill out Wal-Mart job applications. This is the kind of future the likes of Dunbar have in mind for black and brown youth throughout her state, as well as America.
Cynthia Dunbar, and her ilk, are white supremacist xenophobes that masquerade around as Christians. They use their multiple version ed bible and whiteness to justify wretchedly corrupt actions. Dunbar had the audacity to say, “There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God.” The only denial that exists in that sentence is Cynthia Dunbar’s denial that she is really a heathen. The slave owning, land plundering white men that “founded” America worshiped a fabricated mythological God. Regardless of what title an individual chooses (God, Yahweh, Allah, or Buddha), that Supreme Being does not likely condone murder, rape, genocide, theft or any of the other evil actions Europeans carried out on Africans and Native Americans. It is utterly laughable when someone like Cynthia Dunbar says, “We had to go back and make some corrections.” The corrections she wishes to make reside only within the narrowly framed world she, and so many others, dwell in. Within that fictitious world everything revolves around a Euro centric “sun”. Unfortunately, Cynthia Dunbar is not an anomaly. America was founded on these limited and inaccurate ideologies. It is a country where historical facts seldom matter so long as white supremacist ideologies reign absolute. These educational practices not only subsist within predominately white schools, they can be found within the books doled out to black and Latino youth. Their textbooks and curricula are often riddled with the same poison found in white schools’ textbooks.
Like Cynthia Dunbar, Arizona and Texas are not alone. America, as a whole, consumes and eviscerates non-European cultures. It is called Cultural Genocide, and America is among the best. This nation’s goal is to replace culture pride with rugged Americanism. In many other countries a people’s cultural pride, as well as pride in nation; go hand in hand. Different groups’ cultures are celebrated, appreciated and respected. However, in the US, people of color are taught at a very early age to shed their cultural identity as much as possible. They are taught that, like Barack Obama, if you avoid identifying with black or brown issues, or characteristics, you well be rewarded by white America. The legacy of cultural genocide in America has played a major role in the rapid destruction of Indigenous languages.
You can look African or Native American on the surface, just don’t be African or Native American. I have seen black and Latino youth run from their cultural identity many times. They are not taught of their ancestors’ struggle, fierce resistance, or gifts to humanity. However, they are routinely taught of about the white people who destroyed their people, villages and nations. They are even trained to celebrate European murderers, implicitly and explicitly, via holidays, city and school names, as well as on currency. Having African and Native American youth blindly glorify these vile “humans” is akin to having youth of Jewish faith celebrate the likes of Hitler. American society has made a reprehensible practice socially accepted by way of subconscious indoctrination.
Without resistance, organization and mobilization; the presence of non-European cultures within America’s classrooms will continue to dwindle. This also means that pride in cultural identity will significantly mitigate. The teaching of history will continue to be even more limited, inaccurate, and Euro centric. The limited teaching of US history increasingly prevents America from one day developing into an actual humane and egalitarian society. If white children are not accurately taught about the sins of their forefathers, they will be destined to repeat them just as we see now with the mass killings of Iraqi and Afghan civilians. They cycle can only be broken if Americans are presented with a humane alternative to the death and destruction that their tax dollars finance each and everyday. Most Americans support their government’s wars because they have been taught to obey, disengage from critical thought, and to glorify the actions of war mongers. The actions of Arizona and Texas represent the coming wave of institutionally racist and dehumanizing laws and mandates. In essence, they are the status quo. America’s status quo is destructive, inhumane, white supremacist, and isolationist. Only through the solidarity of people of color and progressive whites, as well as with the working classes; can there be an effective campaign waged against America’s status quo. Radical and progressive change must not be requested, it has to be demanded. It must be taken!
Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News radio program (www.blogtalkradio.com/Your-World-News).
Kanan48 says:
May 19, 2010 at 3:27 am
[...] Arizona, Institutional Racism & Assimilation. By Solomon Comissiong 2010/05/19 by kanan48 Via: Daily Censored. [...]
Drag Dog says:
May 19, 2010 at 3:30 am
The fake power brokers in the state of Arizona have declared war on people of color in said State. The greatest weapon in the fight against this overt racism is your mind. People of color, and friendly Whites must united and use the element of surprise in conquering this open racism.Note, American racism came long before the Chevrolet, and my favorite apple pie
Dino Ortolani says:
May 19, 2010 at 11:04 am
calling the governor of AZ racist for the law seems to be going too far. it’s not like Arizona is bordering Russia and has to keep Russian mobsters out. it just so happens they are bordering Mexico and that’s who they want to keep out. and that itself doesn’t mean racism. racism is oppression or unfair treatment of another race just for being a different race. that’s not what it’s about. you can say it is just because you don’t like the actions of the governor, but then you’re just being dishonest when you can see there are other reasons like crime and American jobs to be concerned about. as a side note, i’m not even sure if i believe in American laws. i think it might be nice if i could just travel to Mexico or Egypt without the USA or Mexican or Egyptian governments giving a damn about a visa or passport or green card. also, a lot of the Arizona police force is Latino. and that state law is no stronger than the federal laws of immigration. and mexico’s immigration laws are stricter than arizona or usa’s, so who is racist, mexico? there is a better solution though, if we’d fine companies massively for illegal aliens, and stop giving them tax-payer supported benefits, they’d not care to come here, unless they were ms-13 or something.
A friendly white says:
May 20, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Dino, I don’t know where you get your info from but it clearly isn’t anywhere good. US citizens can enter Mexico without a visa (http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_970.html) but for Mexicans to enter the US legally they have to go through a hell of an ordeal (http://www.usembassy-mexico.gov/eng/evisas.html) so your notion of Mexican immigration laws being stricter than US laws is honestly just silly.
And what taxpayer dollars are you talking about? Illegal immigrants and non-citizens in general are largely barred from publicly supported benefits. What they are not barred from, however, and what they without exception do either directly or indirectly is paying sales, payroll, property and income taxes that go into the local and federal governments’ coffers to support programs whose benefits illegal immigrants will never be able to claim (http://reason.org/news/show/122411.html). The only reason illegal immigrants “care” to come to the US is not because of the generous social safety net (which there isn’t) but because of the US’s economic exploitation (http://www.houstonculture.org/hispanic/conquest5.html) of their home countries that is destroying their economy and local communities leaving the people with few other options.
I believe you are correct in saying that “racism is oppression or unfair treatment of another race just for being a different race” but what I think you are missing is that this is exactly what the two recent AZ bills intend. The SB-1070 (http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf), immigration enforcement bill (which you should read in full before making any further comments), stipulates that “A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER, WITHOUT A WARRANT, MAY ARREST A PERSON IF THE OFFICER HAS PROBABLE CAUSE” and that “…WHERE REASONABLE SUSPICION EXISTS THAT THE PERSON IS AN ALIEN WHO IS UNLAWFULLY PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES, A REASONABLE ATTEMPT SHALL BE MADE, WHEN PRACTICABLE, TO DETERMINE THE IMMIGRATION STATUS OF THE PERSON” and finally “STATE AND COUNTIES, CITIES, TOWNS … MAY NOT BE PROHIBITED OR IN ANY WAY BE RESTRICTED FROM SENDING, RECEIVING OR MAINTAINING INFORMATION RELATING TO THE IMMIGRATION STATUS OF ANY INDIVIDUAL OR EXCHANGING THAT INFORMATION WITH ANY OTHER FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL ENTITY FOR THE FOLLOWING OFFICIAL PURPOSES:…” one of which is “CONFIRMING THE IDENTITY OF ANY PERSON WHO IS DETAINED.” Put all the pieces together and what do you get? A situation when a person can be detained without a warrant with his or her personal information collected in shared across agencies at all levels of government based solely on a “reasonable suspicion” which literally translates into “the person looks Hispanic”. Now if that isn’t “unfair treatment of another race just for being a different race” I don’t know what is.
Dino Ortolani says:
May 27, 2010 at 1:25 pm
what i meant to refer to was how mexico deals with illegal aliens vs. how we deal with it. mexico will fine and put your ass in the pokey for up to 2 years for going there illegally. and if you call the food stamp line in texas, they will even mention people who have made unlawful entry to USA as being ones who are allowed to use food stamps. the government is doing a half-assed effort at stopping immigration.
Dino Ortolani says:
May 27, 2010 at 1:27 pm
i mean stopping ILLEGAL immigration. it is not really an attempt. instead we are wasting a lot of money “patrolling the border”.
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May 22, 2010 at 11:28 pm
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kevinfarmer57@yahoo.com says:
May 24, 2010 at 2:53 pm
It would seem that the readers of this website cannot read the law…the law allows for a person, who has already been detained for lawful reasons, to be asked about their legal status..This law is the same as the current federal law, actually, since it specifically bans profiling of any type, its even stronger than the current Federal Law on this matter…This is nothing more than politics from those who would like to see our country destroyed (even some of these commenters)..If you look at Mexican law regarding immigration, it is 10x more harsh than the AZ law…so, get a life!!!
bill says:
May 24, 2010 at 6:05 pm
actually, kevin, you should read the law and perhaps go buy a moral compass! this currently AZ law, in its foundation, opens the door to increased racial profiling in a country that already has a harsh record in regards to its treatment of people of color. when is the last time, we, as americans, should base any of our laws on what other countries do or dont do? this is wrong whether mexico’s is more harsh or not! however, when it comes to having an equitable society, America, has a long way to go in comparison to some of our european partners. you should perhaps go back an play in your sand box since you appear to be a mental troll unable to predicate any of your arguments on tangible fact without referring to others with silly bites!
Dino Ortolani says:
May 19, 2010 at 2:25 pm
blacks have mighty political power, that’s why there is affirmative action. they have other power like sympathy power, which is why universities will sometimes lower their standards to help blacks graduate. a lot of racism these days is against white folk, who are always accused of trying to oppress other races.
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