AZ Resistors was founded to provide a space in North Phoenix for opponents of Donald Trump’s election to meet regularly to share support for local candidates that oppose the policies being promulgated at the National level and embraced by the majority of our state politicians.
It is an understatement to say that Trump has validated our reason for being. From his sickening treatment of Latino immigrants and children to his embarrassing pandering to dictators, he has rolled out an endless rosary of repugnant policies whose effects have only been blunted by hapless execution from his appointees and massive opposition from groups that defend civil liberties.
In this election year, Trump’s disastrous response to the corona virus, his pitiless regard for the virus’s devastation of our economy and his malicious reactions to countrywide demonstrations against the over-policing of our black citizens have yet again demonstrated the need for us to redouble our efforts to have him removed from office.
Scientific research and competent rollouts of COVID-19 vaccines and therapies will eventually yield results. Our economy will also recover in due course. But the over-policing of our black Americans and more critically, the underlying racism that has perpetuated the misery of black and brown Americans will be much harder to cure. In the civil rights era of the 60’s and 70’s it was vivid television images of the hateful treatment of school children and voting rights workers that sensitized many Americans to finally take the damage being done by Jim Crow segregationist policies seriously. Much progress was made during that era. Progress that has been clawed back by initiatives against Affirmative Action, voter suppression efforts and the “privatization” of public education.
Evidence from smart phones and security cameras and a long list of victims of police brutality provide us ample evidence for the reasons black Americans see the police as enforcers of white privilege, while most whites consider the police as protectors of public safety.
We have a historical opportunity to make meaningful changes, both in how our society ensures true public safety for all Americans and most importantly, how white Americans perceive the burdens our society continues to place on people of color.
We, at AZ Resistors can play a part in that process by adding our support to the Black Lives Matter movement and by demanding reforms and defunding of over-policing activities. We also need to take a good look at our own understanding of black lives and how our acceptance of white privileges damages all of us. And we need to start now.