ABCDEFG was 2 assists shy of a triple double last game.

there is a rich history of professional sports and political activism¹.  but truth be told, these days most pro athletes and owners try to stay out of the headlines when it comes to expressing political opinions.  anyone remember when lebron james wouldn’t sign a petition calling for a stop to genocide in darfur?  i do.  no, these days, athletes and sports franchises have to much to lose to get involved in any kind of political controversy.  which is why it is very interesting to me that the phoenix suns will make a public statement against Arizona’s immigration crackdown law by wearing jerseys with one spanish word on them² during their playoff game against the spurs on wednesday.  the story was circulated on the UCSB sociology mailing lists as news of this kind tends to.  espn.com’s j.a. andande is heralding it as brave, and no doubt, many people like myself who think the arizona law is a horrible violation of civil rights and is categorically racist might be encouraged that someone is taking a very high profile stand against the law.  awesome right?

WRONG.

and let me tell you why.  i admit, i was excited when i saw the story.  as i mentioned before, using sports as a platform to encourage discussion of social issues is all but non-existent these days.  it is a small gesture, sure, but a powerful symbolic gesture that expresses solidarity with those people who are being targeted by these laws.  the statement that the suns released started out promisingly.

Our players and organization felt that wearing our ‘Los Suns’ jerseys on Cinco de Mayo was a way for our team and our organization to honor our Latino community and the diversity of our league, the State of Arizona, and our nation …

the last part of that….”our nation”.  that was great!  it acknowledged that anti-immigrant rhetoric is a national issue.  that when we allow any american state to persecute undocumented immigrants that it’s a problem for the whole country, not just arizona.  this law just doesn’t offend arizonans, but all americans right?  way to go suns owner robert sarver for being so brave!…but then i read the next paragraph of the statement.

The frustration with the federal government’s failure to deal with the issue of illegal immigration resulted in passage of a flawed state law. However intended, the result of passing this law is that our basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law are being called into question, and Arizona’s already struggling economy will suffer even further setbacks at a time when the state can ill-afford them.

what this sentence does is cast the issue of immigration as a problem that needs to be dealt with, which if you ask me, is the opposite of solidarity with undocumented immigrants.  it’s basically saying, we’re totally ok with scapegoating undocumented immigrants for our own economic problems and we’re totally ok with finding them and then kicking them out of the country, despite their contributions to our quality of life and our economic system, just as long as we don’t profile them.  even worse is the next sentence, which basically says, the reason why we don’t want this law is not because it’s racist and unconstitutional, but only because everyone else is making a big stink about it, and that makes us earn less money.  the only reason to put those sentence in is to not alienate conservatives, and consequently not lose them as customers.  money!  friggin money!  that’s all it’s about people! and well, making a statement in a way that doesn’t lose you money is not really making a statement.  it’s a PR stunt.  they can pat themselves on the back since it seems like they’re doing something progressive, but the truth is, they’re taking advantage of the situations to increase their latino fan base without alienating the conservatives who are trying to kick them out of the country.

i recently had lunch with a friend who is writing his dissertation on border patrol militia (the minutemen, that kind of thing).  i asked him if what they were saying about the arizona law.  he said that it was interesting because all they would talk about is that it’s the only way to secure the borders, when in reality the law doesn’t do anything to secure borders since it targets those undocumented immigrants who are already here.  in some ways, the minutemen are being more honest about the law than most people, including the suns.  by “making a statement” against the law, but at the same time implying that undocumented immigrants are a problem, they are decoupling the law with the immigration debate.  but the reality is they’re one in the same.  and if you think about it, the whole immigration debate is about trying to decouple racism from…well, everything.  it’s not ok to discriminate against people of different color but it’s ok to discriminate against immigrants.  so by that logic, this whole stunt is actually the suns saying “i hate mexicans”.

i suppose that i’m not against the suns doing this.  like i said, it’s bringing attention to the debate and i guess that’s better than nothing.  but my sentiment is, if you’re going to half-ass make a statement, i’m only going to half-ass applaud you for it.  because the suns could have worn the mexican uniform and issued a statement that truly stood in solidarity with immigrants, but instead, they only said “we support their right not to be profiled, but we still want you to get the hell out of here”.  and as we all know, when you’re saying one thing, but you really mean something else, all you’re saying is, “what about me?”

1. Yes I know that I haven’t done a real blog in years, and no I don’t know if this means I’ll return to blogging on a regular basis.  Just be happy I did this, ok? [↩]
2. los suns? that’s the best that they could do?  there’s no spanish word for “suns”? [↩]