Human Rights Zone: Building an antiracist city in Tucson, Arizona

Abstract

Tucson, Arizona is on the front lines of border militarization and the criminalization of migration. Residents there are crafting creative responses to the state and federal government’s increasingly punitive treatment of migration. This critical intervention piece focuses on the We Reject Racism campaign as an effort to build an antiracist city in conditions of steady police and military presence. It situates this campaign in a historical lineage of building open and sanctuary cities, and suggests that demilitarization and decriminalization should be recognized as central aspects of antiracist Right to the City organizing.