HB 2281 (2010- ), also known as A.R.S. §15–112, is a law in the American state of Arizona that bans ethnic studies which do any of the following:
- Promote the overthrow of U.S. government
- Promote resentment toward any race or class
- Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of being individuals
- Are designed for a certain ethnicity
but allows:
- Native American classes to comply with federal law
- Grouping of classes based on academic performance
- Classes about the history of an ethnic group open to all students
- Classes discussing controversial history
It applies only to public and charter schools, not to universities or private schools.
The law was designed by White Republican Tom Horne for just one purpose: to shut down Mexican American Studies (MAS) at Tucson Unified School District. Nothing else.
Even though an independent state audit found that MAS did not break the law, Judge Lewis D. Kowal ruled that it did.
In January 2012 the Tucson school board shut down MAS under threat of losing up to $15 million in state money. They banned its books from classrooms.
The Modern Language Association:
Allowing state officials to declare legitimate branches of history and culture out of bounds – to the point of seizing and sequestering books – is inimical to the principles on which the United States was founded.
Two students are challenging the law in court as unconstitutional.
Tucson:
- Location: 115 km from Mexico
- Demographics: “minority-majority”:
- 47% Anglo
- 42% Latino
- 5% Black
- 3% Native
- 3% Asian
- Public schools: 62% Latino – many whites go to private or charter schools.
- Ethnic studies programmes:
- African American
- Native American
- Mexican American
- Pan-Asian
- English and Social Studies (de facto White American Studies)
- Extremely important fact: Half of Latinos drop out of high school.
The state audit found that while MAS did have something of an activist edge, it was not teaching resentment of other races or the overthrow of the government or anything like that. It was open to all students and not just meant for Latinos.
Closing the achievement gap: John Pedicone, the head of the Tucson school district, said that Latino students in MAS scored higher on state tests, were twice as likely to graduate high school and three times more likely to go to university.
But Tom Horne knows better: He said MAS must be stopped because it was spreading anger and despair among Latinos by teaching them that they are oppressed by whites!
Tom Horne:
- Father of HB 2281
- Was Arizona’s head of public schools, 2003-2011
- Is state attorney general, 2011-present
- Marched with Martin Luther King, Jr
- Foundational belief: MLK Quote here>
- George Bush/Kanye West Moment: In 2006 Delores Huerta told Tucson high school students: “Republicans hate Latinos.”
- Suffers from: MID (Massive Irony Deficiency)
MAS teaches history through a Chicano lens. Instead of going back to the Greeks like Eurocentric history, it goes back to the Mayans. Chicanos (Mexican Americans) did not come from England on the Mayflower: their roots in North America and even in Arizona go back thousands of years. White American rule is just the latest chapter, not The Natural Order of the Universe.
See also:
- Books banned from Tucson classrooms – more on those banned books
- Tom Horne
- Arizona SB 1070 – an Arizona law passed at the same time which allows the police to stop anyone and ask for their papers.
- History in Texas schoolbooks – The Republicans there believe in brainwashing too
- Why American history gets whitewashed – well, all right, it is not just Republicans
- Reading Beverly Tatum – some of the psychology about growing up as a person of colour in America
- Cheikh Anta Diop
Again, technology is the potential pitfall for legislation such as this. The one problem coming to mind is access, though networking and teamwork can usually rectify this.
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A) The cartoon is a appears to be an example of race-baiting, as the language of the bill does not fit the depicted image.
B) My wife comes from an Asian rather than a European background, so my kids can’t be expected to learn math unless US taxpayers fund a special program to teach them Asian-centric history? What?
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@Randy Comparing how we teach History vs how we teach Math? Come on, Dude. You can make a better false analogy to derail us than that! It’s like you’re not even trying anymore.
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Jane Laplain,
The implication of the last two posts is that the Mexican American studies program in Tuscon is directly related to significant increases in graduation rates, which begin from a low number. I think it’s reasonable to suggest that the 50% of Latinos who drop out aren’t just doing so because of difficulties in history class.
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Is this not starting to parallel nazi germany?
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Abagond,
You wrote, “(Tom Horne) said MAS must be stopped because it was spreading anger and despair among Latinos by teaching them that they are oppressed by whites!”
Sounds like they fear that their actions brought on by themselves will come back against them tenfold. This goes to show that the white racial frame has no idea that their racist oppression could potentially backfire against them and they are the cause for their own actions coming back to haunt them.
But even so, I say it’s just racial paranoia working its dark magic. There have been NO massive backlash from POC that resulted in physical harm or death on most of the white population. If anything, any resistance has been peaceful overall. So, they really fear of losing their place in the order and all the privileges that come with it.
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@wilson: Well, actually that is nazi USA today. Identical job there. Race based, one nation, deny all critical thinking etc. Or, just like in China today. Or how old USSR used to be. Except that in todays Russia there is more freedom of learning and thought than todays Arizona.
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brothawolf:
Your comment appears to presuppose that any feelings of anger and despair on the part of Latinos would necessarily be fully justified. Do you really believe that people cannot be misled and/or unproductively radicalized?
We live in a world plagued by poisonous, rancorous narratives and influences, so I’m surprised that you’re unable to consider that as at least a possible reason for concern about the effects of the program.
Imagine a scenario where David Duke were lecturing white students enrolled in a White Studies program or Al Sharpton were lecturing black students enrolled in a Black Studies program.
Moderate, reasonable people might be justified in being concerned that both groups were being unproductively inculcated with feelings of anger and despair.
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Randy,
You said,
”
As usual Randy, you’re sticking up for the racist accumulation.
Hell yes. Latinos should be angry and outraged over being oppressed, and this latest chapter in the book of white supremacy is one more reason to fight against it.
And then you mentioned,
I almost laughed at this…Almost
Comparing David Duke with Al Sharpton is is like comparing apples to kumkwats. David Duke is a white supremacist while Al Sharpton is a civil rights advocate. Neither men have anything in common. One wants racial superiority. The other wants equality and fairness. Take a guess which one is which.
Moderate, reasonable people would not think that both whites and nonwhites are both drowning in despair at least for the same reasons. A reasonable person would examine that one group has a multitude of privileges over others based on society’s definitions, policies and images regarding what is considered ‘normal’ and what is best for everyone which in the case of America means that white people are the top priority in almost every degree wthin society.
They would not side the dominant perspective of what is fair and unfair. They would see things as they are and not what they or society wants them to see.
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Wow, David Duke and Al Sharpton as parallels of one another. What’s next? Martin Luther King and the Grand Wizard of the KKK? Or Jesse Jackson and George Wallace perhaps?
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Fiamma,
I know, right?
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Actually, brothawolf, that was a good catch on your part. I hadn’t noticed it until you pointed it out.
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Randy,
I am not going to degrade you but can you be honest – were you born in a bubble? Because the premises that you start with, (e.g. the buck starts and stops with the taxpayer) presupposes that you have ever experienced anything resembling social or economic discrimination.
Why do i get the feeling that you come from old money? I might be totally off-base with that assumption – correct me if i am.
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This is disgusting.
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This very law could be used to ban the mainstream curriculum since it promotes resentment of latinos…
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brothawolf:
Wrong. I’m challenging you to think deeper on this subject. Whether or not Latinos “ought” to feel outraged for historical grievances has nothing to do with whether or not a set of curriculum is appropriate for a public classroom.
What we should be debating is the specific content and materials of that curriculum. Instead, you seem to begin with a premise that a given group ought to feel outraged, so therefore any and all curricula which provokes outrage is acceptable. Seriously man, try harder.
brothawolf:
I’m quite surprised you would consider Al Sharpton to be a credible civil rights advocate. Goodness. Google “Tawana Brawley” to start your learning about the reverend, but don’t stop there.What Sharpton and Duke have in common is that they’re polemicists whose beliefs and actions are outside of mainstream acceptability.
JT:
I come from agricultural peasant stock and grew up either upper lower class or lower middle class depending on how you slice the pie.
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@ Randy
Please…you make all farmers look bad.
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Hahahaha! 😀
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@ Randy
1. Tucson is 42% Latino and growing.
2. Half of Latinos drop out of high school.
3. That means 21% of the city, pretty much, will be locked into poverty.
4. Horne killed (and you sneered at) the only thing known to Tucson that was saving it from that fate.
5. Horne then talks about MAS spreading anger and despair by teaching Latinos that they are oppressed by whites. Both you and Horne seem to miss the irony of that statement.
Horne is making Tucson safe for Structural Poverty and Racial Hierarchy – while quoting MLK. He is either an utterly clueless moron or a sinister fuck. Since he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard I presume the latter.
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Randy,
I’m familiar with the Tawana Brawley trial. Are you familiar with Duke being in prison for tax and mail fraud and getting arrested in the Czech Republic for suspicion of Nazi activity? Besides, you brought up those two named to begin with.
Shaprton is more acceptable to the mainstream as he is not militant in his beliefs. If he were, he probably wouldn’t get as much air time in any situation regarding civil rights.
Duke on the other hand is someone the liberal media can’t side with because of his overt white supremacist ideals. He is the very definition of a racist, and that is something they don’t want to deal with (often).
Anyway, I’m sure Duke would applaud the Arizona state government for their suppression of ethnic studies.
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Randy
While my comment is in moderation, and it’s pretty iffy seeing as how most of it has nothing to do with the current situation, you may be genuinely stuck inside that world of yours and see no reason to leave, or you’re just pulling the wool over our eyes in your “I know more about the world than you do” act.
Anyone with common sense outside the norm knows that this is a form of oppression against nonwhites.
If you were to take away a people’s history while rewriting it to make certain other people look good, you take away their since of meaning. It’s as if to say, “You have no purpose because your people didn’t do anything noteworthy.”
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To Abagond:
2. Half of Latinos drop out of high school.
3. That means 21% of the city, pretty much, will be locked into poverty.
FWIW looking at the source data for Tucson:
http://tusdstats.tusd.k12.az.us/paweb/aggD/graduation/gradrate.aspx
Per the link above. (I am using 5 year figures..)
For 2012:
White 83.56% Black 77.27% Latino 74.92% Native American 60.82% Asian 80.62%
For 2006
White 91.55% Black 87.50% Latino 85.17% Native American 71.43% Asian 97.78%
Wonder why there was such a decline for all groups from 2006 to 2012..?
For the nation as a whole.
http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16
Dropout rate in 2010
White 5.1 Black 8.0 Latino 15.1 Asian 4.2 Native American 12.4
(They appear to include people who receive GEDs etc as having graduated from High School)
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[…] HB 2281 (2010- ), also known as A.R.S. §15–112, is a law in the American state of Arizona that bans ethnic studies … "Extremely important fact: Half of Latinos drop out of high school. … Closing the achievement gap: John Pedicone, the head of the Tucson school district, said that Latino students in MAS scored higher on state tests, were twice as likely to graduate high school and three times more likely to go to university. … MAS teaches history through a Chicano lens. Instead of going back to the Greeks like Eurocentric history, it goes back to the Mayans. Chicanos (Mexican Americans) did not come from England on the Mayflower: their roots in North America and even in Arizona go back thousands of years. White American rule is just the latest chapter, not The Natural Order of the Universe." […]
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@ Uncle Milton
MAS was in place from 1998 to the very beginning of 2012, so you would expect to see higher overall Latino graduation rates in 2006 and 2012.
The statement in the post and in my comment is based on what John Pedicone, superintendent of TUSD said. He was comparing graduation rates for Latino students who took MAS to those who did not.
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@ Peanut
Good video. Thanks.
Good example of Horne wrapping himself in That MLK Quote to support his colour-blind thinking – which, in effect, defends institutional racism.
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Marc Lamont Hill seriously needs his own show.
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@ Uncle Milton
From what I understand in 2006 or some time after Arizona made passing a state test part of its graduation requirements.
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@ Randy,
Mitt Romney said recently:
47 percent of Americans “believe that they are victims.”
“I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
“My job is not to worry about those people,”
“These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax.”
Do you see any daylight between Mitt’s contentions and the arguments you (consistently) put forward? Can you see why one might mistake you for a blue blood, since your point of view is completely guided by the assumption that people fighting for social justice are not entitled to it?
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JT:
You’re making the exact same mistake as brothawolf. The form of the argument goes like this:
1. We should do something about a problem.
2. Therefore, any program designed to address that problem is good.
(Optional: 3. You’re a bad person for questioning it.)
This is very poor reasoning.
Even if you agree with premise #1, there’s a whole constellation of possible solutions which, when evaluated, are not desirable for any of a host of reasons.
This was my challenge to brothawolf, and you too if you’re interested. The relevant discussion here ought to be about evaluating the particular program itself.
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brothawolf:
Which provisions of the law (please be exact) constitutes oppression against non-whites?
Just like with JT, you appear to not have any need to evaluate the program itself, rather contenting yourself that you know the form of the debate, and that’s sufficient to render an opinion.
I would posit that many people don’t even attempt that superficial consideration, rather simply parsing the situation to determine a (reductionist) “brown vs. white” dynamic, then setting their allegiance accordingly.
Is that wolf thinking or sheep thinking?
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Abagond:
Can’t a program like MAS both encourage higher graduation rates and yet ALSO unnecessarily build resentment and anger?
I don’t see these being mutually exclusive. I also question why this particular set of immigrants requires exclusionary education when others didn’t.
Your argument about European immigrants feeling included in history books at the time as a reason for their success doesn’t seem entirely satisfying, as my grandfather couldn’t get a decent job when he arrived or move to certain desirable areas because the Irish who ran things looked down on “eye-talians”.
That didn’t stop them from learning English and demanding that their children succeed in school despite the unavailability of “Italian American Studies”.
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“These are people who pay no income tax. Forty-seven percent of Americans pay no income tax.”
Did Romney really said that? Wow. He is talkin about himself then. After all, man has about 100 million dollars hidden in tax haven somewhere…
@randy: Check out the history. See how italian immigrants were treated for a long time and then go hide in shame. What saved them was not that they were such great fellas who accepted racism of USA just like that. No. What saved them were new immigrant groups, who replaced them as spittoons. And of course, there were always the blacks, mexicans and native americans to spit on.
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“Randy,
I don’t see these being mutually exclusive. I also question why this particular set of immigrants requires exclusionary education when others didn’t.”
Linda says,
Randy, are you purposely being dense?
Why is it so hard for you to admit that the Mexicans lived and ruled Arizona and rest of Southwest US before white Americans took over. These books are not discussing the latest “immigrants” —they are discussing the original Chicano inhabitants and their place in history.
What “exclusionary educations” are you talking about?
I didn’t realize schools were re-segregated. White children in public schools are still sitting next to black and brown ones, so they are all listening to the same teacher and hearing the same Exact lesson.
Sometimes you actually have decent points, but times like this, you irritate me because you are arguing an opposite view just for the h’ll of it.
And all you are doing, Randy, is backing up everyones arguments on this board:
that white people in America believe “they are the center of the universe and everyone else can go kick rocks.”
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Requiring all Americans to learn African-American studies, MAS and other Latino American studies, Asian American studies and Native American studies is the best idea I have heard yet. I had to learn these on my own AFTER high school, so I think it is better to learn about this when one is younger.
Renaming Social Studies in primary and secondary schools as Anglo-American studies is the next best idea I heard. We should be spending at most 60% of our time learning that stuff. In Arizona, maybe it should only be 40% of the time.
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@ Randy
In my experience whenever you say anything bad about white people it is read that way no matter how carefully you phrase things. Any honest Chicano history is not going to go down well with the white authorities.
Because the melting pot is racist. Assimilation only works well for those who can pass for white. Indian boarding schools. Look it up.
In the education I received Italy was one of the stars of the show, along with Greece, France, Spain, England and America. I read Dante, Machiavelli, Galileo, had to know about the art of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, was told ad nauseum how wonderful the Roman Empire and the Italian Renaissance were, learned about Columbus, Vespucci, Cabot, Marco Polo, did a report on the fall of Venice, blah, blah, blah. I even took two years of Latin. Italy was like a Real Place, realer even than New Jersey, which was just a blob on the map with the Turnpike running through it.
More Americans come from West Africa or Mexico than from Italy but they are not studied with such loving care. Not even close.
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Randy,
Really?
Randy, let me give me assessment into how you respond. You come off like a sheltered child with a profoundly innocent yet, narrow whitewashed view of the world. When someone, anyone challenges your view, you reject it. Sure, you ask questions, but you ignore the answers portraying yourself as someone who knows more about any and all situations, especially regarding race, than we do. And you act as though you are well-read, but you won’t take the time to answer your own questions, do any research, or listen to the naysayers. You come off like an infant crying for someone to hold your hand, but screams loudly when you are being led. This is why I think you’re just acting as if you’re amazingly naive.
Oppression is to exercise authority and power in a cruel manner. This law banning ethnic studies is cruel because it takes away the history of certain people. What would you think happen if certain people were denied access to their history in the educational system in a country that prides itself as this shining beacon of democracy?
Speaking as someone who is a member of one of the people oppressed, I can say for myself that it brings a sense of emptiness. You feel unimportant enough to make it through society. Why should you? According the education system’s history courses, your people didn’t do anything special. Your people didn’t accomplish anything. And that is what this ban is leading to.
That is what oppression does. It takes away your feeling of self-worth. It renders you nothing more than a tool to be used and exploited. Even worse, it tells you that you are not worthy of the same freedoms as other people.
Speaking on that, if this is to ban ethnic studies, then shouldn’t it apply to whites as well? It should, but it won’t. They need a version of history to teach, and sense whiteness is the norm, white history will be taught from a white man’s perspective. That is hypocrisy, and who will likely benefit from it? White people of course.
This is a racist nation, Randy, whether you believe it or not. And this nation primarily looks out for the benefit of white people. They are the only people who truly matter in this country, and there are mounds of evidence that support this claim, the same claim that was made for hundreds of years. Only someone stuck in the abyss of ignorance would argue against that.
Why the hell wouldn’t Latinos and Chicanos get angry over this? Why should history according to whites be the standard? Because they (whites) fear that the Latino community would resent white people? And why the hell wouldn’t they expect this given Arizona’s police-state style of immigration policies against the Latino communities, some which is similar to how cops treat blacks?
The bottom line is this: If white people don’t want Latinos and other POC to resent or dislike them, they should stop with their continuous institutional racism. They truly have no one to blame but themselves, and we have the right to blame them as well. Period.
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@brothawolf:
He will refuse to understand. His mind is made up.
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sam,
Exactly. That’s why I consider him an actor in his responses.
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Linda:
A central issue I have with this discussion is the automatic conclusion that if you happen to think Mexican American studies are appropriate for a public school, then this program and these materials are appropriate.
I tried to bring up the example of “If you supported Black Studies and White Studies, would you want Al Sharpton and David Duke teaching them?” to illustrate that even a general principle that you support can still be criticized according to its implementation. Imagine the difference in acceptance if you had, say, Bill Clinton and Condi Rice teaching those courses.
We’ve barely heard a peep about the texts. I haven’t read any Howard Zinn books, but I have heard him on Democracy Now and he did seem rather radical and polemical. And yet to even raise the subject apparently brands one a racist or fool.
I would imagine that a White Studies program which was based on a reading list from National Review would likely elicit howls of criticism, including those from myself.
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brothawolf:
You still have not even addressed the manner in which this program is implemented, so you can’t suggest that I am simply glossing over your opinions with my naive foolishness, because you haven’t rendered an opinion. It’s the form of your argument which I’m criticizing, not the content of it.
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WOW!
This post makes me glad I no longer have any communication/ relations with whites. How insane is it that this simple post, deep rooted in racism against Latinos, gotten so much enthusiasm from Randy? Randy defends anything that ensures the destruction of Coloureds.
Slavery, Jim Crow, The Black Codes, Stop and Frisk…whatever. As long as we’re dying, being subjugated and being oppressed, Randy is all for it. The Psychopathic Racial Personality describes this white mindset to a tee.
Keep it up Randolph, your European days are numbered.
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Abagond:
That seems to be a reasonable suggestion to make, but it suggests a binary dynamic, ignoring the broad continuum from dispassionate criticism to bomb-throwing radical polemic. I’d suggest that the location on the continuum matters.
Abagond:
That’s a fair argument, but are more inclusive history lessons the primary reasons for differentials in school performance?
My father did well in school because he would get the belt if he didn’t. He learned English because his father forbade the speaking of Italian in the house. It was decided that the whole family would learn the new language and that was that.
Ours is not a unique story by any means, and perhaps you can forgive people who personally lived through such realities wondering why this standard is no longer expected of new arrivals.
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Hey Randy, sei pieno di merda! Hows that for Italian studies? . I learned that from some asini intelligenti I know. You see, the best way to learn about other ethnicities, is through the average Joe Blow or Giuseppe, not some book or some long winded stronzi. This is what multiculturalism entails as opposed to the old Yankee ‘melting pot’ philosophy. Melting pot, if there was ever a misnomer that is it. It is a melting pot if you are a white ethnicity for the most part. The concept of ‘melting pot’ is toro merda, as is this law which ever way you try to paint it.
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Randy,
Frankly, I’m done. You can make up all kinds of excuses of why my responses are invalid, but it doesn’t change the fact that I see this act as offensive against POC all because of the suspicion that it will somehow hurt white folks. I gave you my answers. You refuted it because it wasn’t “formed” to your liking.
I will admit that I’m no expert in how to debate or argue. Still, I know a ploy when I see it. All you do is basically do is find ways to defend such actions against people of color (at least when the topic comes to this blog) and expect us to forgive them for their deeds (it seems). Sorry, but this isn’t about what you think we should do based on how you think or how you were raised. To be frank, you’re not special and you have no authority, power or influence over any of us.
But, seeing as how that’s the way you comment, so be it. However, I have a right to my opinion especially if it differs from yours. So, I’m closing this conversation because this is a cruise to nowhere.
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“This post makes me glad I no longer have any communication/ relations with whites.”
@ truthbetold,
The only thing that can describe this decision you’ve taken is “very unfortunate”.
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I didn’t read through all the comments but one thing that is a difference is there are many first and second generation Mexican immigrants who still speak Spanish (I don’t condone the ban on books though, I agree with you on this one Abagond).
I’ll share with you some personal family history ( I know I’ve done this before , but it’s been a while) My Mom is 100% Italian American she is second generation on her father’s side and third on at least half of her Mother’s. Which makes me third and forth.. I don’t speak Italian.
My Dad’s Irish goes much further back on some of his mother’s side and his Dad was second generation. Which makes me fourth on one side and like 6th or seventh on at least one branch of his Mother’s side. My nieces and nephews and I doubt my kids will hold on to much of that ancestry. They might ponder on it to bond with my dad and other relatives, but I doubt they will say as I do ” I’m Irish and Italian”… after a while it becomes you are american… Or to some (white american).. Just thought I would throw that out there.
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continued… It’s like when my Pop (Mom’s Dad) came over from Italy in the early 1920 or so they changed his last name.. even though he was a young boy I think some of that is to make people forget where they came from and assimilate into the new culture. There are too many Mexicans to do that to so they start passing biased laws to try to force assimilation … I don’t think they will be as successful though. In fact banning the books will only make them want to read them more. I also posted this vid before , but I think it’s appropriate here. You need to fast forward to 2:25 to get the point .. I see some parallels on a greater scale with Mexican Immigrants.
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My take on this is that I don’t see any right or wrong side. I just see two competing ethnic groups doing what is in their own ethnic group’s self-interests. Ditto for the immigration issue. If the situation were reversed, Mexicans would be behaving identically. Say for example, Anglos for many decades had immigrated heavily into the state of Sonora and population projections showed that Anglos would soon displace Mexicans in the entire northern states of Mexico. You’d see Mexicans clamoring to stem immigration. And if these Anglos were also demanding that Mexican schools teach history from an Anglo perspective rather than the Mexican perspective, they’d have that shut down as well.
Abagond said:
Most people of Mexican descent are mestizos thus they derive part of their heritage from Europe and part from Mezo-America. So I find nothing contradictory about their learning Western history as it is also part of their heritage. Secondly, virtually no Mexican-Americans have roots to the indigenous tribes that lived in the areas that make up the southwestern states(e.g. Navajo, Chumash). Thus they have no more historical connection to the land than the Anglos. Thirdly, they do not reside in Mexico, they reside in the United States. If they want full immersion in Mexican history and culture, then they can opt to reside in Mexico which is just a short drive across the border and they’ll never have to hear the word “Mayflower” again.
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@ Randy
Wow. Once again, assimilation works for Italian Americans because they can pass for white. Many if not most Chicanos cannot. Brothawolf wrote you an excellent comment on what that means:
Not only do I cosign it, it parallels what many of the Chicano MAS students said.
As to the books, I did a whole post on that. The ones I know something about are excellent. Whoever designed MAS knew what they were doing. If they had had MAS at my high school I would have taken it in a heartbeat. It seems to be a gazillion times better than the whitewashed history I got. For one thing, it talks about RACE and tries to honestly understand it.
By the way, I did a post on Zinn:
As to political manipulation of the school curriculum, White Republicans are infamous for that. They did it in Texas with the schoolbook standards and are doing it now with HB 2281. They do not believe in true education – they believe in brainwashing to become, in Tony Soprano’s words in the video above, worker bees for the rich:
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@ Tulio
You do know, right, that Chicanos pay taxes too, that two-thirds were born in America? It is their country too. To hear you talk one would think America is a white country where everyone else is a guest, the kind who should be glad for whatever little they get. Like seats at the back of the bus. Or hurricane relief that comes five days late. Because they do not truly belong in America. Just white people. Like the 14th Amendment never was, like it is still 1867. Or 1953.
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Abagond:
Why are we shocked by this as black people? Whites have allowed liberal judges and politicians to undermine the laws of this country as it relates to illegal-immigration. The end result, Mexicans and others from central and south america have flooded into the country. If we did the same with respect to their countries, we would be locked up and deported. I’m tired of the hypocrisy of spanish folk in this country. They talk smack about white folks, yet, say nothing about the racism of white spaniards back home who want them to leave Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and other nations. All the coloreds get kicked out more or less, and the whites stay behind…Wonderful! In essence, they push their so-called problems onto (British Whites) in the US. Spaniards are slick, but not that slick. Black-Americans are two-faced as well…we complain about migrants taking jobs away, crowding the jails and schools, gang violence, overrunning our borders, etc. We don’t like what’s going on either, yet, we come down on the side of Mexicans who have what they have because of our struggle. Whites have just as much right as any other race to be pissed-off about this bs, because we would feel the same way. Abagond, if we’re gonna discuss race in this country, we have to be honest on both sides.
Tyrone
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^^^ I agree with Tyrone’s statement above.
Abagond said:
“You do know, right, that Chicanos pay taxes too, that two-thirds were born in America? It is their country too. To hear you talk one would think America is a white country where everyone else is a guest, the kind who should be glad for whatever little they get.”
I’m aware that Chicanos pay taxes. But what does that have to do with anything? So if tomorrow somehow the Chinese were paying the most taxes we’d have to emphasize Chinese history?
This issue is a perfect example of where multiculturalism becomes a real-world hurdle. There’s no getting around the fact that America was founded by white people and their Western culture played the most significant role in creating the society we call America. This is not my opinion, it’s just fact. The founding ideas and principles, language, cultural mores, religion, style of governance, etc comes from Anglo/British culture. Yes, so in that sense, America is a “white country” as is Australia, Canada or New Zealand. If America were colonized by Africans who brought an African system of governance, thought and culture, then America would be an African civilization, even if its denizens aren’t all black. Alas, the America we know wasn’t founded on Chinese, Malian or Cherokee principles. It came from Western Europeans. Take that element out of American history and America would look absolutely nothing like it does now. While other ethnic groups have always played a role as is always the case in a multi-racial society, I’d be lying to myself if I pretended that WASP culture was not at the centerpiece of what created America, or that all cultures have contributed equally to the common culture. What I just said here is antithetical to the multiculturalist doctrine which attempts to place all cultures on equal footing with regards to what they have contributed to the fabric of America. All cultures have contributed something, but that doesn’t mean it has been perfectly symmetrical. Some people feel that stating such is damaging to the self-esteem of students that are not descended from WASPs. There may be some truth to that, I don’t know, but I can’t just toss aside the truth just because it makes some uncomfortable.
I’m not saying that we should ONLY teach about white people. You don’t need to have a multiculturalist doctrine to teach about slavery, the civil rights movement, MLK, Treaty of Guadalupe-Hildalgo etc. These things are simply part of American history period, not just ethnic-American history. Everyone should learn them regardless. I think the problem with some of these ethnic studies programs is that they tend to be radical. I grew up in the Los Angeles public school district, and many schools had an organization called MEChA, a rather radical Chicano nationalist group that taught that the southwest belongs to “Aztlan”, even though there is no evidence that Aztec people had occupied the territories that make up the American SW. Our current Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was a member of this radical group. It’s no surprise that he opposes any motion to enforce immigration laws.
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“Tulio
(1) There’s no getting around the fact that America was founded by white people and their Western culture played the most significant role in creating the society we call America. This is not my opinion, it’s just fact.
(2) The founding ideas and principles, language, cultural mores, religion, style of governance, etc comes from Anglo/British culture.”
Linda says,
Tulio, you’ve brought up some valid points in your statements. Your 1st statement is on point–white Europeans did indeed invade, occupy, and create the modern American power and financial structure we live in.
But in order to survive, the founding class were not above learning something new from other people (non-white) and adapting/adopting these ideas for themselves.
So your 2nd, statement is not all together factually true…such as
they did not create the founding ideas and principles by themselves, they were influenced by and adopted these ideas from the Cherokee Nation’s own democratic legislature.
“The representative democracy of the Iroquois was extensively studied and praised by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, who proposed it as the basis for the United States Constitution. In a backhanded compliment at the Albany Congress in 1754, Franklin said he found it hard to believe that the 13 colonies could not agree to a political union when “Six Nations of ignorant savages” had formed one.”
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/
Many cultural “mores and ideas” came from Native Americans, Africans, and other cultures from overseas and were adopted into the American society through out time–it wasn’t just a “melting pot” based on skin tone.
It all evolved and became part of society and modern day culture because the progressive white Americans were open to learning, being inspired by, and adopting these ideas consciously from non-whites and non-Americans;
while at the same time, white American society demanded segregation from the very people whose ideas and cultural practices they (white America) unwittingly adopted because it was marketed and introduced to them as a “brand New” idea that some white American company /individual developed. (like Rock and Roll music, etc)
My problem is that most people assume that these ideas and cultural mores are all/only “white/European based” and that is not true. I know Social Studies covers these historical facts but is seems the general population still doesn’t get it –why not?
How are Americans ever going to understand the true extent and participation of the multicultural society they live-in, and that American society evolved, based on the combination of cultural practices and ideas.
Historically, there was a conscious decision made to exclude, minimize, and omit inclusion of certain groups in various events that led to significant historical/societal changes.
History is written by the group in power, so marginalizing and omission was/is common. Majority of information is now disseminated via the Media and information is still being manipulated.
If teaching Ethnic studies separately helps to bring about that understanding, then it’s worth doing–especially if it’s done on a broader scale and not just 1/4 of a chapter.
By all means, seditious ideas should not dominate the courses–but what one group calls “sedition” another group calls “truth that has been hidden”—
but who decides what the children should be taught with so many factors in this equation—is it feasible that the group in power decides even though their decision affects not just themselves?
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“Bulanik
Correct me if I am wrong, here, but some indigenous American agricultural products that are now produced and/or used globally”
Linda says,
You’ve touched on a few and to put it all in perspective, lets take the 1st big baller that took the American colonies out of obscurity and started it towards being a financial player:
Tobacco
The Spanish colonists learned how to smoke and grow tobacco from the Caribbean Indians; the white American colonists learned how to plant it and used it as a form of currency with the native American Indians.
Pocahontas’ white husband, John Rolfe, in 1617, realized that he could make a profit by selling tobacco back in England, and this what saved Virginia as a colony because the colonist were able to finally make a profit (after Britain got hers)
Rolfe had planted tobacco that he got from the Spanish colony, Trinidad (which was illegal at the time) because the British smokers preferred the “West Indian” tobacco that the Spanish colonies grew and sold.
Even though historians try to minimize her role, Pocahontas helped her husband in his “trial and error” tobacco hybrids (since it was the Indian women that maintained the crops, she had the knowledge)
Tobacco became America’s first export and commercial success. This led to the beginning of America’s plantation economy—it became the first large-scale commodity that provided wealth for the Colonies. (and the reason they felt they needed indentured servants and African slaves–first recorded ship came in 1619)
http://www.ushistory.org/us/2d.asp
Everything else the white settlers tried before tobacco was a failure and they were starving. Notice how it took using Native American and Caribbean agriculture and riding the coattails of the Spanish European market to kick-start their economy—nothing was done in vacuum.
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This all supposes there’s some kind of alliance between Latinos and Blacks, which there isn’t. I remember when a whole block had to be split up to prevent a riot in between the PRs and the Blacks. Even today I could walk over to Point Breeze and listen to the the diatribes about how those Mexicans are taking the construction jobs that the ex-cons of the community should be given. Except let the developer themselves tell you that they pay the Mexican laborer 10 bucks an hour and the job gets done, whereas the ex-con might as well just be paid 8 bucks an hour not to show up. Or how the Chinese takeout across the street from the Point Breeze police station looks like a military fortress someone’s always trying to rob them. Or how the Jewish owner of that new coffee shop cleaned up a trash-strewn vacant lot next door on his own dime and got ordered by local poverty pimp Kenyatta Johnson to put the trash back because he was going against the community’s wishes by opening something other than a bulletproof window Chinese take-out, nail salon, check-cashing agency, or nuisance bar and then had the gall to pick up the trash.
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@ Jay
How does it suppose that? All I said about blacks in the post is that Tucson is 5% black and has African American studies in its schools.
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Im in absolute total agreement about the foods that native Americans from all the “Americas” have put on the table
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Abagond,
Jay from Philly is just a troll to who just want to show the blog, yet again, why he hates black men in any post whether it is relevant or not. He doesn’t deserve any response because he is clearly too far gone to listen to anything outside of stormfront-esque dialogue. As you can see, his response has nothing to do with the topic.
But it won’t matter to him because he’s already long gone, like a dog who takes a dump in a neighbor’s yard, runs away, and returns the next day to do it again. He’ll be back to say another thing about how horrible black men are and then will disappear until the next time.
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Hey Jay from Philly, were you on vacation? Your posts are hilarious! Loon!
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If Jay actually responds, I would be surprised.
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[…] HB 2281 (2010- ), also known as A.R.S. §15–112, is a law in the American state of Arizona that bans ethnic studies which do any of the following: Promote the overthrow of U.S. government Promote resentment toward any … […]
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“Student Challenges Racist Law Banning Mexican American Studies”
http://www.ethnicstudiesnow.com/press_release_mas_sf_1_12_15
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante (713) 867-8943 AztecMuse@aol.com
Student Challenges Racist Law Banning Mexican American Studies.
San Francisco, CA (January 12, 2015)-Arizona House Bill 2281 was used to prohibit the Mexican American Studies (MAS) Program at Tucson Unified School District. Today “Maya Arce v. Huppenthal” goes to trial today at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Huppenthal was a vehement opponent of MAS, running for an early office by saying he would “Stop La Raza.” He was later caught making racist anonymous comments on blogs, including that Spanish media should be eliminated.
“When Arizona banned our history, we decided to make more,” said Tony Diaz, El Libroraficante (Book Trafficker) “And when a 17 year old Latina high school student overturns one of the most racist laws in America, this will mark the launch of the Chicano Renaissance. The bill is vague enough that it can be applied to many other courses, too. Maya is fighting for every Americans’ freedom of speech.”
100’s of activists, students, community members from all over Texas, Arizona, and California will descend on the court house to demand civil rights for Mexican Americans and to defend Ethnic Studies.
When asked why she was doing this, Maya Arce, the plantiff in the case said, ‘The right to study my history, culture, literature, and art is a basic fundamental human right. My grandparents were punished for speaking Spanish and being “too Mexican” in schools. They were made to feel ashamed of who they were. For this reason I choose to continue the struggle of my ancestors and those who will come after me so we can honor, study, and celebrate our rich resistance to oppression and tremendous contributions to humanity.”
Who: 100’s of activists from California, Texas and Arizona descend on the court house.
What: The Arizona law used to ban Mexican American Studies will be argued in at 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
When: Monday, January 12, 2015, 10 am.
Where: 9th Circuit Court of Appeal, Court House Steps, 95 Seventh St., San Francisco, CA
Why: Every 40-50 years Democracy needs to be rebooted. This time the task has fallen on the broad shoulders and broader imaginations of Chicanos.
Links to more information about the court case:
The House on Mango Street Goes to Trial: #MayaVsAZ
Teaching Hip Hop Illegally Promotes Ethnic Solidarity, Arizona Official says, “Arizona banned our History. We decided to make more.”
via: conta.cc/1tZtZdH
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“California Bill Would Require High Schools To Offer Ethnic Studies”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/california-ethnic-studies_n_6480170.html
“Conservatives hoping to shut down Mexican-American studies in Arizona are inadvertently helping spread ethnic studies curricula across the country.
California Assemblyman Luis Alejo (D) proposed a law last week that would require public schools in the state to offer elective courses in ethnic studies for students in grades seven through 12, a potentially trailblazing move toward changing the way America educates an increasingly diverse student body.
Alejo told The Huffington Post his actions were motivated in part by a desire for his state to stake out a path opposite from that taken by Arizona, where the legislature passed a law in 2010 to shut down a Mexican-American studies curriculum in Tucson public schools.
“This was in direct response to what was happening in Tucson,” Alejo told The Huffington Post. “We’re not talking about banning courses … Ethnic studies are important and should be available at earlier grades.”
He pointed out that he filed his bill just days before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Arizona law.
Having taken an ethnic studies course himself as a college student, Alejo says he knows the benefits firsthand. He says offering courses where Latino, black and Asian-American students can learn more about their heritage and read works by people of similar backgrounds will help engage students and show that their schools value them.
“If we are really serious about preparing our students for jobs in the 21st century and to be successful in college, we have to have a high school curriculum that reflects the diversity of all our populations,” Alejo told The Huffington Post.”
“Educators and activists in Texas have also worked to implement ethnic studies courses in local districts, after the State Board of Education declined to create a statewide curriculum last year.”
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Repealed.
Federal judge blocks Arizona from banning Mexican American studies classes
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-mexican-american-studies-20171227-story.html
Will this pave the way for the rest of us to have access to our history?
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