Surely you’ve heard about recent efforts in Arizona to make it legal for police to stop and demand documentation from pretty much anyone who looks like he should not be hanging around in the glorious US of A. In other words: Police just got a stop-and-search free card to go after anyone who looks Latino or otherwise like an illegal non-Arizonian – which is where the fun starts, right, my O’Odham and Navajo brethren?

Meanwhile, play this and keep reading…

Latin Alliance – Runnin (1991)

I mean, where do you start? With the fact that an immigrant nation such as the US should really be more aware of its own history, like how the native nations  had to get the fuck outta dodge to make room for European settlers and their hunger for space, minerals and metals?

Or the fact that in post-Columbian times, the area was claimed as a Spanish territory, then, after independence in 1810, belonged to The United States of Mexico and was then conquered/purchased from Mexico around 1850. As an individual state, Arizona only entered the federation of the United States of America in 1912 (!).

Show some sense and sensitivity, you guys. By the time Anglo Americans got to Arizona, the US were the second colonial power to move around people who seemed to not fit in with the new neighbours. Neither Navajo nor Mexicans seem to get an break in the state, it seems. Who’s taking away shit from whom, I ask.

Anyway, there’s a great debate going on about this, for instance on my man Davey D’s website, and lots of musicians like Toki Wright, Chuck D and many more are weighing in with tracks about this bill SB1070 which is only one of many measures to make Arizona whiter and more ignorant about its own past. The bill was sponsored by notorious white supremacist Russel Pearce, and it was signed into law by current governor Janice Brewer, a pro gun-carrying, anti-gay equality, anti-KidsCare Republican.

My guess is, there is more to come where this is from… Damn, I hate it when I’m right…

But let’s get to the musical bit I was gonna introduce you to here. One such track calling out anti-social legislators in Arizona is by Phil Harmonic, an Arizonian himself, and here you can listen to it or download it for free. Sounds dope.

Peace, 9@home