WTF Is Wrong With You Arizona? P.S. I Love You Michael Yaki

Sunday, May 16, 2010

I was reading this article down at the SF Gate and well - I think the post title says it all - because really - WTF is wrong with you Arizona? How incredibly effed up do you have to be to follow the mother of all racist laws with another mother of all racist laws?

I think we should all silently ponder that answer as you read an excerpt on the matter from someone better than me:

The statute bans courses that "promote resentment toward a race or class of people . . . are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group . . and advocate ethnic solidarity." The statute then goes onto exempt courses on the Holocaust because, of course, without that exemption, every class that shows Schindler's List where at the conclusion you resent the Nazis (a class of people) and wanting to save the Jews (promoting solidarity), you would have violated Horne's law [...]

Horne's dilemma is that enforcement will be so arbitrary, so capricious, relying, most likely, on Horne's particular biases and whims that the statute is begging for a First Amendment challenge. How do you quantify or measure "resentment." "Ethnic solidarity?" If two Latino students, hearing about the plight of migrant workers in the lettuce fields of California, feel that they should send a donation to the United Farm Workers to help them combat the agrigrower owners, has that crossed a line? [...]

And let's not forget Arizona's participation in one of the most shameful acts of racism in American history: the incarceration of over 100,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. The Arizona desert was a lovely place for west coast Americans to spend their time simply because of their ethnic heritage.
I'm going with option #1 which I think is the only option there which is "pretty MF effed up" - and I do realize that it's a little redundant - but in this case - I think it's warranted.