Chuck D calls Jan Brewer 'a Hitler' [View All]

[Ed Barrow]

Public Enemy's Chuck D has released another song condemning Arizona nearly 20 years after the incendiary "By the Time I Get to Arizona," in which he blasted Gov. Evan Mecham as a racist "cracker" over his refusal to recognize Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a holiday.

The track, which starts off sampling "By the Time," as you may have guessed, is more concerned with the relative merits of SB 1070. The track is called "Tear Down That Wall," and the rapper told Billboard he wrote it because "the governor is a Hitler," adding that "Tear Down That Wall" is "something that has its own life. It's not that you're doing anything to be opportunistic. I talked about the wall not only just dividing the U.S. and Mexico but the states of California, New Mexico and Texas. But Arizona, it's like, come on. Now they're going to enforce a law that talks about basically racial profiling."

Chuck D has also issued a statement that reads, in part, "Jan Brewer's decision to sign the Arizona immigration bill into law is racist, deceitful, and reflects some of the most mean-spirited politics against immigrants that the country has ever seen. The power that this law gives to police, to detain people that they suspect to be undocumented, brings racial profiling to a new low. Brewer's actions and those of Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce, the Arizona State Senate are despicable, inexcusable, and endorse the all-out hate campaign that Joe Arpaio, Russell Pearce, and others have perpetrated upon immigrants for years. The people of Arizona who voted for this bill, as well as those who crafted it, demonstrate no regard for the humanity or contributions of Latino people. And for all of those who have chosen not to speak up, shame on you for silently endorsing this legislated hate."

http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/music/articles/2010/06/21/20100621chuckd-arizona-immigration-law-hitler.html