Mexican Universities Cancel Exchange Program w/ Arizona Schools

The following schools have ended student exchange programs with Arizona:

• Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí
• National Autonomous University of Mexico

Like so many unexpected consequences of the racially biased laws being passed in Arizona, Arizona’s policing of brown bodies and educational programs related to Latin@ culture has mean an extreme loss to students stranded in the state. Not only does this mean that students from Mexico will not be exposed to the unique culture and learning opportunities in the state but students from Arizona will not be able to learn from Mexican colleges and universities either. The losses to educational opportunities for people growing up in or attending higher education in AZ just keep stacking up.

This decision also increases the number of international institutions condemning Arizona’s new discriminatory laws, the most high profile of which, of course, being the United Nations itself. The government of Honduras weighed in against Arizona at the end of April, as did the London Office of Amnesty International.

The state government of AZ’s response: spend $250,000 on a”Truth Telling Taskforce” to rebrand Arizona and counter all the “lies” about racism embedded in their laws. Those “lies” include the idea that

1. SB 1070 is tantamount to racial profiling – because, apparently “looking like an immigrant” is a race neutral form of policing
2. SB 2281 is white washing history – because claiming programs and courses about people of color’s histories are divisive, anti-American, and in some cases anti-government and subsequently privileging [Euro-American] history is race neutral education

The propaganda machine Truth-Telling Taskforce has already started it’s re-programming truth mission by sending people who voted for or supported these bills out to leave comments on blogs, newspaper websites, and do interviews with major sports channels. Why sports channels? Because among the many unintended losses the state is now experiencing, the Arizona Diamondbacks are reporting that their games are turning into political rallies and their is an action going on to move Major League Baseball’s All Star game out of Arizona.

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