This is a great development. We have spent a lot of time in Flagstaff. It's a good place, with a good community and
a decent university deeply tied to the townspeople. There are many Latinos and Indians and quite a few progressive whites. I hope the unions get behind the grassroots organizing. We never heard any immigrant bashing in Flagstaff (or in Tucson, where we lvied, for that matter). There are millions of Arizonans who do not favor criminalizing immigrants. Everywhere you go you see and feel the presence of
Mexicans and Indians. They have been rooted in the social structure of the state for a long time. What is more, businesses could
not survive without them. And more whites than you might think are supportive of their struggles. We lived in an artist's studio for a few months in
Tucson. The owners of the property were a white husband and wife, he in his 60s and she in her late 70s. One day we were talking about the hatred for Mexicans that some people had (interestingly, this seemed most common among more recent white arrivals). The woman said she just didn't understand it. "After all," she said, "They're our neighbors."
The fight against the racist AZ law can be a building block for a larger fight. And it is a righteous cause in its own right. Every radical shoud be supportive and hopeful.
Michael Yates