The Immigration Law in Arizona

On Wednesday, The President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, while speaking at the White House, spoke out against the immigration law signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. After Calderon's speech, President Obama echoed the same sentiment by adding that the bill is unconstitutional.I agree with both presidents on this issue because the idea of the police actually stopping Latinos
(even if they were born in this country or are second or third generation) either walking down the street or pulling them over if they are driving and see if they have their papers to prove that they are a United States citizen is insane.

Racial Profiling? Uh, Yeah!

A lot of people say that the new bill is not about racial profiling, but it is about racial profiling. As a black man, I know what it's like being singled out when I'm out anywhere because of my race, so there is no way I'm going agree with the new bill. Also, those folks who say that it isn't about racial profiling have never been stopped by the police before; have not walked into a store and felt the presence of a store clerk and/or security guard follow their every move; have never walked down the street without a woman hold her purse tighter than ever or my personal favorite, move the purse to the other side of their body in order to avoid me, even though someone can come from behind and take it; have never walk to or from their car and someone sets their car alarm immediately and/or lock their doors very quickly; have never felt the evil sting of prejudice and discrimination. They do not know what's it like to be a person of color in this country and they will never know how it is until they walked a mile in our shoes ( maybe a new "Black Like Me" experiment could be in the works, who knows.)

One of my favorite groups of all time, Public Enemy did a song on the 1991 classic album Apocalypse 91.. The Enemy Strikes Back called "By The Time I Get To Arizona" which talked about how the state (along with a few others at the time) did not support the idea of granting a national holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (the video was great , by the way.) For those not familiar about what happened, here's the back story:In 1992, the National Football League gave Arizona citizens a warning that if they did not vote for the passing of the King bill, that the league will pull the 1993 Super Bowl out the state and move it elsewhere. In November of that year, the citizens of Arizona said no to the passage of the bill and the NFL moved the '93 Super Bowl to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, which ironically was the last time that the big game was held in Los Angeles. Back to my point, the song was very important now in 2010 just like it was in 1992. Recently there has been talk about pulling the 2011 Major League All Star Game out of Phoenix, but Commissioner Bug Selig said that the game will remain there, for now.

Los Suns vs. Los Spurs

I applaud the Phoenix Suns for taking a stand on the issue. Steve Nash and Amar'e Stoudemire were some of the Suns that spoke out against the controversial bill. During their home playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs, the Suns wore their home jerseys with "Los Suns" on the front. Also I want to thank Gregg Popovich, coach of the Spurs for talking about the bill. The Spurs, who like the Miami Heat, and Dallas Mavericks, participate in the National Basketball Association's annual Noche Latina (Latin Night) wanted to wear their "Los Spurs" jerseys in that playoff game, couldn't do so because of logistics and they only have those jerseys in the home whites and it wouldn't make any sense for two teams to wear white jerseys during a game.

Conclusion

Look, I definitely understand that you don't want people living in this country illegally because if you cannot prove that you are a United States citizen, then you need to leave this country immediately. However, pulling people over or stopping them while they are walking is not the answer. Arizona politicians has to come up with a better way to stop illegal immigration and they need to go back to the drawing board and think about it because this is not going to work.