Ramirez, Sarah

Chicana/o Studies 111

14, October 2014
Professor Zepeda

Criminalizing Characteristics
With the passing of the law SB 1070, there has been many arguments that it only
serves to go against people of color by racial profiling and criminalizing them. This is
said because this law not only requires people to at all times be able to provide proof of
legal status, but gives police the right to detain anyone who looks suspicious. Now the
question is, what does suspicious look like? In this essay I argue that SB 1070 racial
profiles Mexicans or Latinas/os by letting any person of color be detained by police just
for looking a certain way. Throughout this essay I will present examples about people
who have experienced this racial profiling themselves to support my argument.
The supporters of this bill believe that it is costing the state millions to support
immigrants, but one thing people need to think about in this country is that if immigrants
arent here, then who is going to do work that rich people dont want to do? (Duque,
29). And yet people still take this work for granted, by blatantly ignoring this fact or by
underappreciating the work so much that many Latinas/os are being exploited for their
work. But one of the main problems, is that immigrants are not being seen as real
hardworking people, but rather they see [them] as invaders and criminals (Duque, 29).
A person who looks suspicious is more likely to be shunned when they walk by now
and not treated as well, but with the racial profiling that this law is enforcing, an
immigrant who is white and blue-eyed...[people] have treated her well (Duque, 29).

The innocent immigrants who come to this country not out of malicious intent but
in a desperate attempt to find work, have come to be criminalized under this new law.
This new way of thinking has made harmless people be thought of as strangers who
have invaded [Americans] dream And colored it (Urrea, 20). But these accusations
come only from a place of hatred, where a million assumptions are made about any
person of color. All racial profiling statements about looking a certain way are unfair,
prejudicial, perhaps even racist assumptions not only about [her], but about anyone who
would call themselves Mexican (Calderon, 79). And being judged by the way that they
look is not only wrong and racist, but it is also degrading. For a young woman to be
questioned about her true nationality and to deny that she really is a person of color is
more than just a stereotype; its insistence that who [she is], is not valuable (Calderon,
80). That a Senate law of this United States makes people feel degraded and invaluable
is not what America should stand for.

Works Cited
Duque, Maria. "Why I Struggle." Presente. Oakland: AK, 2014. 29. Print.
Urrea, Luis Alberto. "Arizona Lamentation." Ban This. Florida: Broken Sword
Publications, 2012. 20. Print.
Calderon, Sara Ines. "What's A Mexican "Supposed" To Look Like?" Ban This. Florida:
Broken Sword Publications, 2012. 79-80. Print.