Kigali and Phoenix: Historical Similarities between Pre-Genocide Rwanda and Arizona's Anti-Immigrant Wave

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 cur-rent technical conversations supporting multiculturalism to boisterous multilingual advocacy regarding any dehumanization of oppressed communities.