Music & Marketing: URBANIZED!

from AZCentral.com

Zack de la Rocha has issued a statement on behalf of an organization called the Sound Strike urging music fans and fellow artists to boycott Arizona "to stop SB 1070," which he labels an "odious" law.

Among those artists joining de la Rocha's boycott are Conor Oberst, Kanye West, Rage Against the Machine, Rise Against, Cypress Hill, Serj Tankian, Joe Satriani, Sonic Youth, Tenacious D, Street Sweeper Social Club and Michael Moore.

In de la Rocha's words, the new law "sanctions racial profiling, straight up," forcing "cops to hunt down and target anyone they 'reasonably suspect' that may be undocumented. And if the people they harass don't have proof that they were born in the U.S., they can be detained and arrested."

He goes on to note that "Some of us grew up dealing with racial profiling, but this law (SB 1070) takes it to a whole new low. If other states follow the direction of the Arizona government, we could be headed towards a pre-civil rights era reality. This unjust law was set into motion by the same Arizona government that refused to acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr. day as a national holiday. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, they arrested her. As a result, people got together and said we are not going to ride the bus until they change the law. It was this courageous action that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. What if we got together, signed a collective letter saying, 'We're not going to ride the bus?' "

The website includes a petition urging President Barack Obama to take action.

"Arizona's new law is an assault on the US Constitution and an affront to the civil rights that were earned by generations who came before us," the petition reads. "When states disregard the Constitution, when they sanction mistreatment of communities, it is the imperative of the Executive Branch to take the lead in defending the U.S. Constitution."

The Sound Strike's call to boycott follows recent protest cancellations by Cuban-American rapper Pitbull and Latino rappers Cypress Hill. A Phoenix New Times blog says this latest development feels like it's "only the tip of the iceberg," while AEG Live president/CEO Randy Phillips told Billboard he believes "the economic impact on the state from losing even a couple of tours might be enough for the legislature and the governor to realize that there is still a political concept called the tyranny of the majority which is just as dangerous to our democracy as illegal immigration, maybe more so."