Kanye West Protests Arizona Immigration Law

In the name of Rosa Parks, Martin Louis The King Jr. (also known as Kanye West) insists that artists boycott Arizona over its controversial new immigration law, which makes failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give law enforcement officials the authority to quiz residents on their immigration status.

The rapper is supporting Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack De La Rocha, who is spearheading a campaign against the clause opponents call legally-sanctioned racial profiling. Yeezy compares the plight of Arizona residents to that of the civil rights activists who boycotted buses in Montgomery after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger in 1955.

“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’, saying ‘We are not going to comply. We are not going to play in Arizona. We are going to boycott Arizona?!”

Cypress Hill, Massive Attack, rapper Pitbull, comedian Jack Black, and Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore have also joined the boycott effort against Arizona.