Fear as Ideological Appeal Against "Illegal" Strawman

Shout Out to Dr. Cintli's blog for posting the link http://www.twoamericans.com/
Two Americans Documentary Coming to Tucson?

As though Joe Arpaio (http://www.arpaio.com/) needed more reason for opponents to despise him (lawsuits pending),the trailer for this documentary called Two Americans dares audiences to think of immigration as anything more than a humanitarian issue. Ideological appeals can often be reduced down to uses of fear and desire, and the voices of conservative voters in the documentary trailer prove this by attesting to fearing the construct of the "illegal" person. The logic follows in a quote from a woman that if a person is labeled "illegal," then they are "nasty"; the same woman admits to being afraid. Whether the woman feared people of color before the "illegal" label was given to migrants can not be demonstrated, yet the label of "illegal" validates her assumptions and prejudice under the blanket of what is ethically right in the letter of the law.



UPDATE:
Two Americans will be playing at the U of A:
Tues April 24 - 6-9pm
Integrated Learning Center Auditorium #140
University of Arizona 

A piece a former student Mercedes Galarza wrote called "Arpaio el Gallo":

Oldie, but goodie Lalo Alcaraz piece I've posted before.

El Gallo Arpaio

Sometime back, some students at a local high school I was working with wrote corridos for a contest. I decided to post one of my favorites that didn't win, but deserves a look. The name of the young woman who wrote it is Mercedes Galarza.

El gallo Arpaio

Les traigo un cuento sobre un gallo,

Grande, blanco, feo, y gordo.

Se brincaba nuestra cerca,

Nos manda a nuestra casa.

Su sobre nombre es Joe Arpaio

El gallo se cree rey del barrio.

Corretea a la gente

Que no se parezca a el.

Discrimina donde debemos

Respirar libremente.

Solo queremos ser indiferentes.

Ese gallo Joe Arpaio

Nos viste a nuestros hombres

Todos de color de rosa,

De los pies a la cabeza

Incluyendo los calzoncillos.

Le gusta el color de mariposa.

El quiere parecerse a un héroe

El mas fuerte y feroz de todos.

En realidad no es mas que un

Hombre con demasiado orgullo.

Sus modos americanos

lo tienen muy cegado.

El gallo que vive al lado

Se levanta muy temprano.

Se la lleva kacarajeando

Y levantando a la vecindad.

Quiere que hagamos su voluntad

Y es muy bueno para mandar.

Bueno amigos aquí se acaba el

Cuento del gallo y Joe Arpaio

Aun nos corretea y picotea

Pero nunca nos quitara

Las ganas de triunfar, tampoco

Los sueños que traemos al barrio.

(bottom Gallo Image by Cristina Sosa Noriega)

Arpaio interrupted

Anti-Arpaio Protest through song

On William Nericcio's Tex[t]-Mex blog, he posted an interesting video taken from a public appearance by Joe Arpaio at a First Amendment forum at Arizona State.

Interruption is a rhetorical strategy that has been deployed by the conservative 'Tea Party' groups, so it's interesting to note that the left is performing similar approaches in public forums.

Even the site in his name is against him:http://www.arpaio.com/(photo from standing-firm.com)