Neocolonial Biopolitics in Southern Arizona: Lessons Learned from the SB 1070 Boycott

During April 2010, in response to Arizona Senate Bill (SB) 1070 (a bill that allows law enforcement to initiate deportation processes during routine traffic stops, for example), a national boycott of Arizona was implemented by local and national non-profit organizations, grassroots groups, celebrities, musicians, activists, and other stakeholders. However, one year after its very successful inception, the SB 1070 boycott was suddenly called off by its more mainstream participants. In this article, I analyze the SB 1070 boycott as discussed in newspaper and television coverage, community and activist group websites, and political blogs in an attempt to understand why this boycott lost its momentum. Ultimately, I find that the SB 1070 boycott became a productive site from which the violent regime of neocolonial governance in the US Southwest was reaffirmed and rearticulated—especially the raced, classed, and gendered logics of this regime. I conclude by summarizing some of the “lessons” from the SB 1070 boycott in terms of consolidating insurgent geopolitical power in the US Southwest and beyond. Specifically, due to the various forces that co-opted and neutralized the insurgent potential of the SB 1070 boycott, I argue for abolition as a central grassroots political project or primary organizing goal.