By The Time I Get To Arizona, Part 5

OK Arizona, the immigration law is one thing.  But your ethnic purity in schools legislation is not "borderline racism".  It's not "misconstrued only by activists" as racism.  It absolutely is goddamn racism, and Gov. Jan Brewer is absolutely a racist for signing it into law.

State schools chief Tom Horne, who has pushed the measure for years, said a Tucson school district program promotes "ethnic chauvinism" and racial resentment toward whites while segregating students by race.

"It's just like the old South, and it's long past time that we prohibited it," Horne said.

The measure prohibits classes that advocate ethnic solidarity, that are designed primarily for students of a particular race or that promote resentment toward a certain ethnic group. It also prohibits classes that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government.

The Tucson Unified School District program offers specialized courses in African-American, Mexican-American and Native-American studies that focus on history and literature and include information about the influence of a particular ethnic group.

For example, in the Mexican-American Studies program, an American history course explores the role of Hispanics in the Vietnam War, and a literature course emphasizes Latino authors.

Horne said he believes the Mexican-American studies program teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by white people. Public schools should not be encouraging students to resent a particular race, he said.

Brewer's signature on the bill comes less than a month after she signed the nation's toughest crackdown on illegal immigration – a move that ignited international backlash amid charges the measure would encourage racial profiling of Hispanics.

A Republican running for attorney general, Horne has been trying to restrict the program ever since he learned that Hispanic civil rights activist Dolores Huerta in 2006 told students that "Republicans hate Latinos."

So let me get this straight: a school district that offers ethnic studies classes to all students in the district is "segregation" and the classes themselves may lead to "resentment of a particular race" and you're afraid of the classes promoting "the overthrow of the U.S. government"?

Really?  It's something straight out of a movie or something.  "Sorry, you can't have classes devoted to the study of your ethnic culture.  You might come to resent the dominant culture or something.  We can't have that."  I don't understand why in 2010 anyone would have a problem with ethnic studies classes, but I guess if you're worried that the darkies are coming for your nubile daughters, you'd get a knee-jerk reaction.

So, hats off to you, Jan Brewer.  You're a reactionary racist of the first order, and that will be your lasting legacy as Governor.  Even the UN condemns your laws.

Six experts affiliated with the United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a scathing statement condemning Arizona's new immigration law as a likely violation of international human-rights accords.

The Arizona law permits authorities to demand immigration papers from anyone stopped, detained or arrested who sparks a "reasonable suspicion" of illegal entry into the United States. The UN statement suggests that provision could be in violation of global accords that are binding in the United States, such as the international convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and a separate convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

The experts also take aim at another law passed by the Arizona legislature that bans public schools from teaching ethnic studies curriculum. Their statement advises the U.S. government to "take all measures necessary to ensure that the immigration law is in line with international human-rights standards and to devise and carry out any mechanism to control migration with due regard of the rights of people to be free from discrimination and to have access to their cultural heritage."

Ethnic studies classes have been around for decades.  But only in a border state with a black president does it become a problem for white people, I see.

Racist.  Period.  You're a horrible person Jan Brewer, and I hope Arizona votes you out.