The backdrop for July 29th was certainly set with the premature firing of Shirley Sherrod from the US Department of Agriculture. An ambush initiated by blogger Andrew Breitbart who aired a doctored video tape of Sherrod was fueled by the rest of the rightwing media. These are the same people who have been ratcheting up the anti-immigration sentiments across the nation and who celebrated the passage of SB 1070 in Arizona.

July 29, 2010—that’s when the legislation to profile suspected undocumented immigrants was to go into effect. It’s also the day when thousands of activists and concerned citizens from all over the country will converge on Phoenix to protest the law as racist and unconstitutional. The protests will be held regardless of the decision by the federal judge to delay the law taking effect. There are already seven suits pending in US District Court challenging the law as unconstitutional.

The long-range question to be answered is how will we address an issue that is largely about brown people by a government that is mainly white. Will there be a rush to a remedy such as what happened in the Sherrod case where head man Tom Vilsack forced a hasty resignation by a valued employee from the side of a dusty road? Can we have a sane but passionate discussion about race relations in this country?

Some will say the Arizona law is not about race; it’s about the law. Or they will say it’s about economics and those who are sucking dollars from the US economy. I submit both of these are bogus arguments. I always look to how these same people have left corporate America to their lawlessness with minimal opposition. The Wall Street capitalist took the country to the brink of economic destruction with all props from the Bush Administration and there was barely a squeak from the now fist-throwin’, spit-blowin’ gallery. Their racist venom towards Obama for the deeds of Bush is the same venom that had Sherrod paying for the historic racism in the Department of Agriculture that has left black farmers historically in a lurch. It is a deliberate redirection of where our attention needs to be.

SB1070 may have gotten a lot of attention but it will not solve the problem of undocumented immigration. The public discourse is lopsided because mainstream media has not offered a balanced discussion on this complex issue. The first contradiction is that there’s rarely an informed Latina or Chicana that is part of the debate. White experts know best how to resolve the issues of brown people, an attitude African Americans know all too well.

We will be talking about Arizona in the coming days, maybe weeks and months. Meanwhile, there will be countless jabs by racists who have been activated by the current climate of hate that has been building since the election of President Obama. If we aren’t vigilant, a series of racist policies, procedures and laws will follow the attitudes of a growing legion of whites who feel they are losing control, losing ground, losing privileges, losing rights, losing jobs or just plain losing.

Progressives, whether they be in the media or organizing in the streets, must begin framing the race issue in a way that builds towards a genuine race analysis in this country. There will be many battles in the war for racial equality: immigration is but one of them. This is not about scoring points or who can get the most people unjustly fired. It’s about creating a society that is just and humane. Fair-minded people of all colors have a responsibility to—as Bob Marley urged—to “get up…stand up for your rights.” But we cannot trounce on the human rights of others. We must uphold the rights of all peoples in this country if we all are to enjoy “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Jamala Rogers is the leader of theOrganization for Black Struggle in St. Louis and the Black Radical Congress National Organizer. Click here to contact Ms. Rogers.