If the last week is any indication of what is to come during these pre-election months, Arizona is sure to see a hotbed of activity from the civil-rights front.

The energy came in the form of two events: a rally spearheaded by ASU students and a celebration of the removal of Proposition 104, an anti-affirmative action initiative, from the ballot.

Both events took place Saturday afternoon.

Sandra Castro, organizer of the rally, said the gathering outside Phoenix City Hall was a show of unity and an attempt to call attention to recent Arizona legislation and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s neighborhood sweeps to find illegal immigrants, which critics feel unfairly target Hispanic people.

Castro said the sweeps are a violation of civil rights and that a recent bill going through the state legislature threatens ethnic-based groups like MEChA — an organization that promotes higher education and deals with political and socio-economic issues in the Mexican-American community.

“We’re out here to get one step closer to making a change,” said Castro, a journalism junior, who is a member of MEChA. “This is a lot bigger than us. We want our community and state back. Our priority is to stop the attacks on education and get Arpaio out of office.”

The protestors voiced their opposition to an amendment to Senate Bill 1108, written by Republican state Rep. Russell Pearce.

The add-on to a homeland security bill stated that public schools, including those operated under the Board of Regents and the Maricopa County Community College District, “shall not allow organizations to operate on the campus of the school, university or community college if the organization is based in whole or in part on race-based criteria.”

Castro said if passed, the bill would take away school groups like MEChA.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Pearce did not respond for comment.

The Brown Berets, a Chicano nationalist activist group, also helped organize the rally.

David Rico, a speaker at the rally and member of the Brown Berets, said the group came to Phoenix as part of a southwestern tour to mobilize Mexican Americans.

“The proposal to get rid of MEChA and Chicano studies in schools is killing a race,” he said. “They didn’t kill Jews in one day — it was one little law and then another little law.”

A PARTY
Meanwhile, not far uptown from the MEChA rally, members of Protect Arizona’s Freedom were celebrating the removal of Proposition 104 from the ballot.

Secretary of State Jan Brewer disqualified the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative after officials determined more than 35,000 signatures invalid.

Protect Arizona’s Freedom, a coalition formed to defeat the proposition, was instrumental in mobilizing the fight against the initiative that would have banned affirmative action in the areas of public education, contracting and hiring.

ASU spokeswoman Sarah Auffret said the University does not allow preferential treatment or discrimination in admissions and would not comment any further on the initiative.

Despite this policy, some say the initiative would have eliminated equal opportunity programs on campus.

The Arizona Students’ Association, a non-profit, non-partisan student advocacy group, opposed the initiative, board chair Michael Slugocki said.

He said it would have eliminated equal opportunity programs such as Women In Science and Engineering and Hispanic Mother-Daughter programs at ASU.

“ASA took a stance because we saw it would close doors and hurt equal opportunity,” Slugocki said. “It would have harmed people’s access to college and higher education. All students should have the chance to succeed.”

Social work professor Sandy Wiley was one of the forces behind Protect Arizona’s Freedom. She said the proposition would have also affected hiring.

“My problem with the initiative is: Place two identical resumes in front of an employer, with only the names different, and research shows that the employer is more likely to choose the non-ethnic name,” Wiley said.

She said the initiative would have continued the thought processes that allow such practices to occur.

Max McPhail, a spokesman for the initiative, said equality is what the initiative is about. It would have kept the government from using public money for preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin, he said.

“This initiative is going after the government,” McPhail said. “If race is a positive for someone then it’s a negative for someone else. We’ll never get to be a color-blind society when people have to check a box.”

The Secretary of State determined the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative collected 194,961 valid signatures. This failed to meet the 230,047 minimum for a constitutional amendment.

McPhail said his organization was reviewing the invalidated signatures and hopes to resurrect the initiative.

“We believe that based on other initiatives’ findings that we will be able to find signatures deemed invalid and qualify for the November ballot,” McPhail said.

Reach the reporter at philip.haldiman@asu.edu.