“Ah ha, hush that fuss. Everybody move to the back of the bus… A-T-L, Georgia, what we do for ya.” OUTKAST, “Rosa Parks” Aquemini, (1998)

JUSTICE. Damn! It’s a lot going on in the news surrounding civil rights and the overall distribution of civil rights.  Yesterday I wrote about the floods through “Aquemini,” leaving you with the question of whether or not you think the levees should be opened in Louisiana to save residents of the state and nearby Mississippi.  Today, I’m thinking about Carlos Santana’s exercise of his right to free speech at this past weekend’s Civil Rights game between the Braves and the Phillies that was held at Turner Field.  In a nutshell, Santana was given the Beacon of Change Award, along with Hank Aaron, Morgan Freeman, and others, but had some choice words for the city and state regarding its recent passing of immigration laws.   When Santana accepted his award, he said: “The people of Arizona, and the people of Atlanta, Georgia, you should be ashamed of yourselves. This law is not correct. It’s a cruel law, actually.” “This is about fear,” Santana continued. “Stop shucking and jiving. People are afraid we’re going to steal your job. No, we aren’t. You’re not going to change sheets and clean toilets. This is the United States. This is the land of the free. If people want the immigration laws to keep passing, then everybody should get out and leave the American Indians here.” Damn Santana!! He let the crowd have it, and some followed with boos.  Was this the appropriate platform to protest?

According to Matthew L. Ramsey, a Republican state legislator and one of the authors of the new law, lawmakers can now set clear guidelines on when the police are allowed to request a suspect’s immigration status. The law allows state and local police officers to request immigration documentation from criminal suspects and, if they do not receive it, to take the suspects to jails, where federal officials could begin the deportation process.” “States don’t have the legal authority to deport. We don’t have the legal authority to secure our borders,” Mr. Ramsey said. “But our goal is, within a constitutional framework, to eliminate incentives for illegal aliens to cross into our state.”  The law also creates stricter requirements for businesses hiring workers and harsher punishments for anyone who harbors or employs an illegal immigrant. OK. That’s fare…I think.

In Obama’s speech on immigration in El Paso, TX on May 11th, he said “That’s the promise of this country…that anyone can write the next chapter in our story. Doesn’t matter where you come from, doesn’t matter what you look like. What matters is that you believe in the ideals on which we were founded.” Yeah that sounds good, but the reality is that we are a country still steeped in racism and poverty.

The DDR: There are over 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., and 425,000 illegal immigrants in Georgia, the seventh most of any state.  Does Georgia have a bad case of what I’m calling the Rosa Parks Syndrome? Is this law a sophisticated form of racial profiling?  If so, what’s the benefit of Georgia passing this law?