After a heated city council session in which discriminatory practices of WWII were invoked, Los Angeles has become the biggest of several cities to boycott Arizona over its controversial new immigration law. L.A. is banning most official travel to Arizona, cancelling contracts, and considering how much of its $58 million current business with Arizona can be dissolved. Given that Arizona's bill is still broadly supported in national polls, will this boycott change anything? (Watch a local report about L.A.'s vote to boycott Arizona)
"Money talks": Arizona needs this "powerful yet civilized" message that it "has gone too far," combined with the sting it's already feeling from other municipal boycotts, says the Los Angeles Daily News in an editorial. Boycotts helped bring down the South's Jim Crow laws. This may just work.
"Sensible sanction: The city's boycott of Arizona sends strong message..."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
This is ill-concieved grandstanding: L.A.'s constitutionally dubious boycott is nothing but "self-righteous political posturing," says Jeff Burk at Frum Forum. And consider the irony: L.A.'s stand against "anti-Hispanic discrimination" is inflicting economic pain on an a population that's 30 percent Hispanic. Furthermore, the "most destructive" illegal aliens target Arizona, in part, thanks to California's stricter border regulations.
"L.A.'s illegal Arizona boycott"
Arizona's digging in: "Boycott proponents are now, with growing consistency, presenting Arizona under the banner of the 'State of Hate,'" says Elijah Sweete in The Moderate Voice. Even the Republican party passed over Phoenix for its 2012 national convention, choosing Tampa instead. But Arizona lawmakers just poured more gas on the flame with an "ethnic studies" ban.
-
The dazzling coral gardens of Raja AmpatThe Week Recommends Region of Indonesia is home to perhaps the planet’s most photogenic archipelago.
-
‘Never more precarious’: the UN turns 80The Explainer It’s an unhappy birthday for the United Nations, which enters its ninth decade in crisis
-
Trump’s White House ballroom: a threat to the republic?Talking Point Trump be far from the first US president to leave his mark on the Executive Mansion, but to critics his remodel is yet more overreach
-
Millions turn out for anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ ralliesSpeed Read An estimated 7 million people participated, 2 million more than at the first ‘No Kings’ protest in June
-
Ghislaine Maxwell: angling for a Trump pardonTalking Point Convicted sex trafficker's testimony could shed new light on president's links to Jeffrey Epstein
-
The last words and final moments of 40 presidentsThe Explainer Some are eloquent quotes worthy of the holders of the highest office in the nation, and others... aren't
-
The JFK files: the truth at last?In The Spotlight More than 64,000 previously classified documents relating the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy have been released by the Trump administration
-
'Seriously, not literally': how should the world take Donald Trump?Today's big question White House rhetoric and reality look likely to become increasingly blurred
-
Will Trump's 'madman' strategy pay off?Today's Big Question Incoming US president likes to seem unpredictable but, this time round, world leaders could be wise to his playbook
-
Democrats vs. Republicans: who are US billionaires backing?The Explainer Younger tech titans join 'boys' club throwing money and support' behind President Trump, while older plutocrats quietly rebuke new administration
-
US election: where things stand with one week to goThe Explainer Harris' lead in the polls has been narrowing in Trump's favour, but her campaign remains 'cautiously optimistic'
