I have heard and seen countless commentaries in the media and the Internet (including comments on this blog) that claim that because the Arizona immigration law explicitly forbids racial profiling, it will not unfairly target Latino and latina citizens.
This argument is either disingenuous or just naive.
Here is Adam Serwer on the so-called “color-blindness” of Arizona’s law:
{…} This is basically an extension of colorblind racist philosophy into law — namely the text of the bill outlaws racial profiling, despite the fact that it is clearly aimed at the state’s Latino population. The reason you can pass a law that encourages racial profiling in spirit while prohibiting it in letter is that everyone has a concept in their head of what an “illegal immigrant” looks and sounds like. A police officer wouldn’t have to make a judgment based on race alone; as the civil-rights groups’ lawsuit points out, they could make such decisions based on racialized factors such as “language, accent, clothing, English-word selection” or “failure to communicate in English.”
“Driving while black” has always been probable cause for a traffic stop in this country. Arizona has now added driving while brown, speaking Spanish, or eating tacos.
