I decided to write this diary because of my concerns related to Arizona's new immigration law. This law is nothing more than an expression of racial, and employment discrimination. Those Republicans, and others, who supported this law are opposed to any just immigration reform.
Arizona is not alone in this angry racial response to an economy in decline. Oh yes, I do believe that the economy plays a role in the recent escalating, racial discrimination and "hate of the other" violence. I was reminded that Americans have a short memory. That we often demonstrate an inability to learn from the past.
more below the fold
When you couple racial discrimination with fears of economic decline, an expanding workforce, competition for jobs, the past has demonstrated that violence often follows. Every day the news has another story of violence, not all are racially motivated, but all demonstrate that people who fear those who do not share their political, religious or economic views, may translate it into violence, employment or racial discrimination.
I was reminded of the Detroit so-called Race Riots of 1943 and 1967, and Dr. King's eloquent remarks on the power of non-violence, while reading the following articles:
http://www.politico.com/...
Threats close Raul Grijalva's district offices
By KASIE HUNT | 4/23/10
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has closed his Arizona offices after a man called and threatened to "blow everyone’s head off," his office said Friday.
The man, who called Grijalva’s Tucson office twice, said he would then go to the southern border and "shoot any Mexicans that tried to come across," Grijalva spokesman Adam Sarvana said. Police were dispatched to protect the Tucson office, Sarvana said. He said no staffers have been injured and that the offices in Tucson and Yuma were closed as a precaution. They are set to reopen Monday.
The threats come after Grijalva’s outspoken opposition to a tough anti-immigrant state law that the Arizona legislature passed this week.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Slain Miss. white supremacist was stabbed, beaten
MARIA BURNHAM and HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press Writer Maria Burnham And Holbrook Mohr, Associated Press Writer
PEARL, Miss. – A white supremacist lawyer was stabbed and beaten to death by a black neighbor who had done yard work for him, police said Friday.
How is Arizona law, or this act of violence in Mississippi related to riots in Detroit? For those to young to remember and those to old to forget, history is available as a teacher.
President Franklin Roosevelt's Fair Employment Practices Committee declared in 1941 that there could be no employment discrimination. This is credited with starting the racial tensions in Detroit that began in 1941. Escalating with the migration of African Americans from the south to Detroit to work in the factories. By 1943, the Black population had grown to 50,000. (wikipedia reference used)
In the summer of 1943, brawls started among African American and White youths on Belle Island, and quickly escalated into riots, and looting lasting 36 hours. In the end, 3 days later, there were 700 people injured and 34 murdered.
In the summer of 1967, riots and looting was a multiracial event lasting 5 days, with 467 injured and 43 murdered.
Is Arizona going back to the future?
Are Americans here and in the South again headed down the divided political road that intersects on the cliff of violence? There is a better way, the way of non-violence. No one in my lifetime has done a better job of advocating the non-violent path to racial and economic equality than Dr. Martin Luther King. I can't word it more eloquently, so I am not going to try.
http://www.mlkonline.net/...
Speech at the Great March on Detroit
23 June 1963 Detroit, Mich.
....
I think there is something else that must be said because it is a magnificent demonstration of discipline. With all of the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people engaged in this demonstration today, there has not been one reported incident of violence. [Applause] I think this is a magnificent demonstration of our commitment to nonviolence in this struggle for freedom all over the United States, and I want to commend the leadership of this community for making this great event possible and making such a great event possible through such disciplined channels. [Applause]
....
Now the other thing that we must see about this struggle is that by and large it has been a nonviolent struggle. Let nobody make you feel that those who are engaged or who are engaging in the demonstrations in communities all across the South are resorting to violence; these are few in number. For we’ve come to see the power of nonviolence. We’ve come to see that this method is not a weak method, for it’s the strong man who can stand up amid opposition, who can stand up amid violence being inflicted upon him and not retaliate with violence. (Yeah) [Applause]
You see, this method has a way of disarming the opponent. It exposes his moral defenses. It weakens his morale, and at the same time it works on his conscience, and he just doesn’t know what to do. If he doesn’t beat you, wonderful. If he beats you, you develop the quiet courage of accepting blows without retaliating. If he doesn’t put you in jail, wonderful. Nobody with any sense likes to go to jail. But if he puts you in jail, you go in that jail and transform it from a dungeon of shame to a haven of freedom and human dignity. [Applause] And even if he tries to kill you, (He can’t kill you) you’ll develop the inner conviction that there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they are worth dying for. (Yes) [Applause] And I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live. [Applause]
This method has wrought wonders.....
And I think by following this approach it will also help us to go into the new age that is emerging with the right attitude. For nonviolence not only calls upon its adherents to avoid external physical violence, but it calls upon them to avoid internal violence of spirit. It calls on them to engage in that something called love. And I know it is difficult sometimes. When I say "love" at this point, I’m not talking about an affectionate emotion. (All right) It’s nonsense to urge people, oppressed people, to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense. I’m talking about something much deeper. I’m talking about a sort of understanding, creative, redemptive goodwill for all men. [Applause]
We are coming to see now, the psychiatrists are saying to us, that many of the strange things that happen in the subconscience, many of the inner conflicts, are rooted in hate. And so they are saying, "Love or perish." But Jesus told us this a long time ago. And I can still hear that voice crying through the vista of time, saying, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you." And there is still a voice saying to every potential Peter, "Put up your sword." History is replete with the bleached bones of nations, history is cluttered with the wreckage of communities that failed to follow this command. And isn’t it marvelous to have a method of struggle where it is possible to stand up against an unjust system, fight it with all of your might, never accept it, and yet not stoop to violence and hatred in the process? This is what we have. [Applause]
....
And with this faith I will go out and carve a tunnel of hope through the mountain of despair. With this faith, I will go out with you and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. With this faith, we will be able to achieve this new day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands..
We can not control the media's role, or that of conservative groups, Republican politicians, neo-Nazis, and militias in fostering violence. All Progressives, and like minded moderates or conservatives can lead by example. We can be civil while standing up for our moral values. We can have peaceful events, like Latino Call in Sick to Work Days in Arizona and across the nation. Others have posted many good suggestions for protests, legal action and civil disobedience in the plethora of diaries on the Rec. List today.