Arizona’s controversial new immigration law went into effect this weekend. Critics fear the law could enable racial profiling, though the most contentious aspect of the legislation is now on hold. On Wednesday, a federal judge issued an injunction barring state police from checking on immigration status when stopping people for suspected crimes.

As we saw last week with the Shirley Sherrod saga, race and class continue to vex Americans. In fact, we were having a similar conversation about race exactly one year ago.
On July 30, 2009, a piece of White House stage craft forever known as the “beer summit” took place. The white police officer who arrested a black Harvard professor in his home went to the White House to meet the first African-American president on the Rose Garden patio.
Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree represented the professor, Henry Louis Gates, after his arrest. Ogletree has a newly published book called “The Presumption of Guilt” about that incident and its larger implications. Need to Know’s Alison Stewart sat down with him.
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