I made it through my 3rd Weekend in Residence and I had a blast! Not only did they feed us Thai food on Sunday (Community Time sponsored by the Dean of Students’ Office) and stack the schedule with amazing speakers (Amy Wax – immigration attorney, Michelle Ashley Figueiredo – LGBT activist and spokeswoman, and Andrea Neumann-Mascis – psychologist) but I got to give a presentation of my own. My topic of choice: Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070.

SB1070 is Arizona's controversial immigration Bill. Since the signing of the Bill by Arizona's governor, Jan Brewer, in April of 2010, SB1070 has resulted in a number of lawsuits... The federal government even filed a lawsuit against Arizona!

Arizona is currently awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision to entertain an oral argument regarding the constitutionality of the Bill. Essentially, this Bill does nothing but legalize racism. If the provisions that have been struck down by the US Federal District Court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals are allowed to be enforced, it basically gives the police free reign to demand documentation (proving citizenship status) from anyone that they have “reasonable suspicion” to believe is in this country illegally.

As a courtesy I will spare you my “soapbox speech” but I do want to point out that while I will always consider Arizona my home I certainly feel a lot more comfortable “being brown” in Massachusetts. (And my Cultural Diversity class is awesome!)

The presentation:

SB1070pdf