Food City

Food City, April 2011 (photo by Nicholas Hester)

1338 East Apache, Tempe, AZ

Directions from ASU:  Drive north on Rural, take a left at Apache and drive 1 mile

Food City is a local grocery store much like any other store where a person could get food, cleaning supplies, or piñatas. The one difference is Food City is the target of ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The center of ICE has complied a list of attributes to go off of if they think a person is illegal except “the categories are necessarily subjective”. (Rivera) Food City offers a different type of food, aimed more towards Hispanics, this is the reason is it targeted. Illegal Mexican immigrants are thought of to shop at Food City than a Safeway or a Fresh and Easy. ICE has received a lot of flack for their racist antics against Food City shoppers.

Racism is defined by “hatred or intolerance of another race or races.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/racism) It is easy to see why ICE has been called racist due to their lock down on Hispanics shopping at Food City. If a Caucasian were walking out of the grocery store, they probably would not be stopped and asked if they are here illegally from Canada or Europe. “Indeed, the actual erosion of traditional categorical racism, state driven or not, may intensify rather than ameliorate colorism.” (Glenn) Judging a person by their skin color is something America has become accustom to which is why ICE has been spotted at Food City so much. They are stereotyping every person that shops at Food City to be an illegal immigrant opposed to looking at any other grocery store in the Maricopa County.

When a race is ‘picked on’ like Mexicans are the main focus of ICE at Food City, people start noticing and taking offense. When there are enough people that have been offended, they take a stand. For example, when American Private First Class Felix Longoria had “earned a Bronze Service Star, a Purple Heart, a Good Conduct Medal, and a Combat Infantryman's badge for service in the Philippines during World War II”, (Carroll) did not receive a proper burial at first because the whites would not approve, Mexican Americans took a stand. What would happen if Mexican Americans in Maricopa County took a stand against ICE?

- Nancy Kahn and Nicholas Hester