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January 30, 2011

Arizona: More Whaaaaaaa!

By Michael Shaw

I sorta like this although I have a little trouble fully understanding it.

So, this protestor, Jorge Mendez from Glendale AZ, is participating in a pro-14th Amendment demonstration lashing back at an effort to completely restrict citizenship to children of  non-citizens? If I’ve got that right, it seems like Jorge is calling the right wingers out as babies for the use of the “anchor baby” term, and crying about the law as it stands.

Given how the Tea Party likes to dress up, I’m wondering if Jorge’s mockery is “going there” too.  And then, I wonder if this would have looked any less extreme if the overall tone of the political wars hadn’t toned done recently.

Backstory: In Arizona, a bid to block citizenship for illegal immigrants’ ‘anchor babies.’ (CSM)

(photo: Jack Kurtz/The Arizona Republic/AP. caption: Jorge Mendez, from Glendale, Ariz., dressed as a baby to play the role of an ‘anchor baby’ during a press conference at the State Capitol Thursday in Phoenix. Mr. Mendez opposes a bill to deny citizenship to some babies born in Arizona.)

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  • black dog barking

    TP’ers play/dress as Minutemen because they think they look cool. They need us to understand how pure they are, how much better than us. Jorge looks ridiculous. He’s not talking down to us.

  • jmac

    14th Amendment – Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, AND SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTION THEREOF, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

    I think some Tea Partiers support the 14th amendment but think it does NOT mean that just because you’re born here you’re a citizen (subject to the jurisdiction thereof) –

    So at first glance you could think this group consists of Tea Partiers, especially with Jorge in his outfit. Yet, the Pilgrim sign suggests otherwise, and indeed, makes you wonder about Jorge – is he doing a Corbert?

    • NoPublic

      If anchor babies are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S.A. and its courts then what kind of limbo would they be in?

      If we have no standing to deport them and they have no citizenship who are they beholden to? How would we deal with them?

      That’s one stinky kettle of fish.

  • Vvoter

    Empirically, this photo alone doesn’t give us a lot to work with. The signs do contextualize the scene within a public political demonstration, but like many public gatherings, motives and reasons that drive individuals within the group can be difficult, if not impossible, to assess with any certainty.

    Once again, we are left to construct our own readings – perhaps the quintessential rhetorical move. I really want to figure out how to construct my own reading upon the (Freudian?) concept of infantile fantasy… but that may be too easy.

    As with the image stream coming out of Cairo, this image also gets me thinking about the role spectacle plays in directing the flow of public attention. Yet I’m with Shaw on this one… I don’t get it either.

    Even as an adult, my buddies and I sometimes revert to that popular playground trick called Made You Look!, where, if you can get your unguarded pal to reflexively glance toward your hand, you get to punch him in the arm. Strange, but I feel like I’ve got a bruise on my shoulder that reads ‘Jorge Mendez.’

  • Enoch Root

    “I wonder if this would have looked any less extreme if the overall tone of the political wars hadn’t toned done recently.”

    The political wars did not tone down recently. A bunch of people talked about whether they should, and a bunch of people said they might, but it didn’t actually happen.

    Mendez’ performance reminds me of this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dawn-teo/tea-partiers-punked-prank_b_360693.html

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