Kigali and Phoenix - Historical Similarities between Pre-genocide Rwanda and Arizona’s Anti-immigrant Wave

Oct 15, 2026

The article draws historical parallels between Arizona’s recent political developments and events surrounding Rwanda’s pre-genocide period. It recounts how Arizona’s education and immigration-related policies affected students and mirrors those processes against frameworks associated with Barbara Harff and Ted Gurr for predicting impending oppression. By mapping narrative evidence to the stated evaluative checklist, the work argues the phenomenon extends beyond Arizona and anticipates broader consequences, including under a Trump presidency, calling for multilingual advocacy against dehumanization.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time55 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

A Facebook Chat

Bystanding

| | Kigali and Phoenix: Historical Similarities between Pre-genocide Rwanda and Arizona’sAnti-immigrant Wave | | --- | --- | | | | Eric Dwyer, Florida International University Abstract Historical events in Arizona, including very recent ones, are eerily similar to those of Rwanda. In this article, stories of Arizona’s political history are relayed while recalling those leading to Rwanda’s genocide. The stories include references to key roles education policy has played in the oppression of students labeled Tutsi and students labeled Mexican. These stories are then mapped with respect to Barbara Harff and Ted Gurr’s checklist evaluating conditions that may portend impending oppression. Conclusions derived from the stories and the mapping suggest that Arizona’s phenomena extend beyond its borders and into a Trump presidency, necessitating our obligation to be leaders by extending current technical conversations supporting multiculturalism to boisterous multilingual advocacy regarding any dehumanization of oppressed communities. Keywords: oppression, policy, bystanders, advocacy, documentation, repatriation These are the seeds of hate that we cannot let take root in our heart. Barack Obama, April 23, 2012 Introduction In April 2010, Arizona governor Jan Brewer signed Senate Bill (SB) 1070, the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act. Critics like Colorado congressman Jared Polis linked the policy to attitudes resonating from pre-World War II Germany, exclaiming that laws requiring police to examine papers of suspected undocumented immigrants were reminiscent of the 1930s treatment of Jews (Hunt, 2010) . Such condemnation of the legislation, quickly nicknamed the “Papers please” law, 1 referred to the bill’s language: The legislature finds that there is a compelling interest in the cooperative enforcement of federal immigration laws throughout all of Arizona. For any lawful contact made by a law enforcement official…where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is 1. Seth Meyers (2010) is quoted as saying,“I know there’s some people in Arizona worried that Obama is acting like Hitler, but could we all agree that there’s nothing more Nazi than saying ‘Show me your papers?’ There’s never been a World War II movie that didn’t include the line ’show me your papers.’ It’s their catchphrase.” unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration statutes ofthe person. (Arizona State Senate, 2010) During its implementation, numerous non-government organizations were similarly working to stem immigration from Mexico (Tacopino, 2010; Price, 2010), thus sparking labeling such organizations as “Nazis,”2 and referring to the term genocide (Cintli Rodríguez, 2011; Al-Qaraz Ochoa, 2011). Such activity unleashed international condemnation, including protest from Mexico’s president Félix Calderón. In counter-response, Governor Brewer echoed her supporters: “We’re out here on the battlefield, getting the impact of all this illegal immigration, all the crime that comes with it”(Van Susteren, 2010) . A Facebook Chat Such sniping among political leaders prompted a Facebook conversation with a fellow teacher. I, serving as a lecturer at the National University of Rwanda, sat at my laptop, chatting with Beth Witt, an elementary school teacher on the Navajo Nation in Arizona. I commented on the troublesome history of Rwanda and how the 1994 genocide affected my students, who were, at the time of the genocide, the age of Beth’s current students. In Beth’s case, she relayed the effects of Arizona legislation upon her job, her colleagues, her students, and their families. Our discussion prompted a casual comparison of Arizona legislation, namely that of SB 1070, with Rwanda’s own pre-genocide history. At first, the comparison seemed unlikely. But quickly one Arizona phenomenon seemingly corresponded with another Rwandan

FAQs

What historical event and U.S. policy does the article focus on when drawing parallels?

It centers on Arizona’s Senate Bill SB 1070 and compares the political dynamics described to the pre-genocide context in Rwanda, especially in relation to genocide-era patterns of oppression.

How does education policy enter the article’s argument?

The article references education policy’s role in oppressing students identified as Tutsi and students identified as Mexican, treating these as connected mechanisms across the two historical settings.

What framework does the article use to assess conditions that may lead to oppression?

It maps the stories onto Barbara Harff and Ted Gurr’s checklist evaluating conditions that may portend impending oppression.

Oct 15, 2026

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