More bad legislation out of Arizona

Arizona is now toying the legislation that would prohibit ethnic studies classes at public schools. One example of such a class would be one that focused on Mexican American History. The New York Times carried a story about this legislation. The Arizona law characterizes ethnic studies classes as promoting hatred between the races. But this law seems more like one which aims at ideology. Ethnic studies classes create awareness of social processes, injustice, and takes an historical view of the treatment of various ethnic groups by the US. By outlawing these classes, the governing elite in Arizona want to control ideology and rhetoric along with the legal status of undocumented immigrants. This is turning into a out and out attack upon the immigrant communities in Arizona and their allies. I have been shocked by polls that show that well over half of the US citizens who were recently survey SUPPORT the Arizona legislation. The prestigious PEW Foundation reports the gloomy facts.

With the continuing legal attacks upon undocumented immigrants in the US, it is more important now that ever before for progressive religious groups to protest these types of laws. We need to take the unpopular side in this debate to prevent these hateful actions from spreading throughout the country. Unfortunately I just learned that in my home state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a conservative Republican from a rural county has introduced legislation that mirrors the Arizona statute. This bill will be fiercely combated in the state and it is impossible to imagine our progressive Democratic governor from ever signing such a piece of legislation. But the conflict over immigration seems to be growing more and more strident.