Arizona And Texas Lead Effort To Undo Decades Of Chicano Studies

DailyKos.com:

Academics, students and members of communities of color across the U.S. should be paying close attention to the concerted assault being waged right now in Arizona against its ethnic studies programs.

Those of us who weathered the battles of the late '60s and '70s for the establishment of disciplines like Black studies, Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Asian and Native American Studies must come together to defend and expand those critical programs and departments that serve and educate, and who have expanded history and culture to include those of us who have been marginalized and never part of the official canon.

Read the whole story: DailyKos.com

Comments

[sibyl9]

08:35 PM on 09/06/2011

Students can take ethnic studies in college where such divisive and inflammatory content is regularly permitted a forum for more mature students.

[Consequence]

04:07 PM on 09/06/2011

If you are taking Hispanic Studies as a Hispanic....why?
If you are taking African American Studies as a Black....why?
If you are taking Women's Studies as a woman...why?

How self-indulgent.

And if you get a degree in it the only thing you are then qualified to do - just like if you get a history or music degree - is to teach it.

What a waste.

[3daywkend]

11:16 PM on 09/06/2011

Exactly. They should limit this stuff to one class. Chicano Studies certainly doesn't deserve an entire department.

[jln1215]

12:42 PM on 09/06/2011

Check out "plan de aztlan", to take over the most of USA, my brother was part of "plan de Aztlan" now he laughs about it has become, the word Chicano, never existed in my time, they were called "pochos", chicano was a short word by the "pachucos" for Mexicanos that were born in Mexico.

[Rastageneral]

05:09 PM on 09/06/2011

I don't know what to make of your disparate run-on sentence but you are way, way, WAY off the mark if you think "pochos" is a word for Mexicans that were born in Mexico.

The use of the word "Chicano" to describe someone is to make a direct assertion of that person's US-born bonafides along with asserting their Mexican heritage.

Post not of what yee knoweth not a thing.

[Ari Sedona]

10:41 AM on 09/06/2011

Do you think someday the Latinos will realize they are not the chosen people they think they are? America is filled with people from all over the world that come here, work hard and do it legally. Just cause you sneak across the border does not make you special.

[Rastageneral]

05:34 PM on 09/06/2011

Do you realize that one of the traits of a racist is that they tend to over-generalize characteristics of some members of a group to all of the members of the group?

Are you saying Latinos think they are "chosen people"? That is rich! Where do you get this concept from?

Are you saying that if someone is Latino and in this country they snook across the border?

It sure seems as if you're implying as much.

[leo satx45]

10:23 AM on 09/06/2011

Sympathizers of ILLEGAL aliens like; La Raza, Congressmen, Luis Guttierez and Dick Durbin have effectively equated the plight ILLEGAL aliens with our native born Hispanic population. It’s been effective at casting the opposition to ILLEGAL immigration as racists. It’s a con job and a scam. It’s a deception that has unfortunately taken root among U.S. citizens of Hispanic origin. Hispanic’s have bought the con hook, line and sinker. Not all in the Hispanic community like being tagged with the “downtrodden” label. Native Hispanic’s across this country have prospered politically, economically and socially over the years only to be pegged or assumed to be sympathizers of the ILLEGAL alien movement. It’s really a shame to witness on many levels. Today’s ILLEGAL immigrants are tomorrows Democrats. The blow-back is starting to happen within the Latin community and many are distancing themselves from the ILLEGAL alien diatribe pervading our politics and national dialogues. Puerto Ricans and Cubans are starting to become very vocal about the notion of being associated or carrying the banner with the tide of ILLEGAL aliens pandering and disrespecting the laws of the United States. Not everyone that is Hispanic is a day laborer or looking for a handout, but it’s hard to shake the association with the smallest group screaming the loudest.

[Rastageneral]

05:39 PM on 09/06/2011

With regard to your comment and your micro-bio: No, you're definitely wrong.

[leo satx45]

06:01 PM on 09/06/2011

Actually, I could care less about you or what you think of my comment(s). You're a non-factor to me.

[arliobserver]

07:37 AM on 09/06/2011

These programs take up space in budgets that are sorely taxed to provide services for citizens of the USA seeking an inclusive useful education that will lead to lifelong employment. These programs are only factories of dissent.
Visit Mount Vernon - the home of our 1st President - on any day you wish - in the spring student travel season - you will always find a disaffected Latino (or 10 ) sitting out the tour on the benches outside the gate - having been removed by their chaperones for not participating in the observance of the history that founded this nation. Such malcontents deserve to have their faces permanently screwed up in the scowl they exhibit - while saying "this is no about my country - I no care about this....". Join us - we have done a good job of it before you got here.

[ILoveGreatDanes]

05:28 AM on 09/06/2011

I can see it now. Teaching Chicano Studies is just another way of rationalizing why illiegal immigration is really OK, because Chicanos are somehow "entitled."
Signed,
a disgruntled Houston, Texas property taxpayer

[Rastageneral]

05:44 PM on 09/06/2011

I don't doubt that is the way you see it in your mind; it's your mind's connection with reality that's doubtful: do you have ANY proof of what you say (that these ethnic studies are about rationalizing illegal immigration)? Any proof from any kind of worthy source?

-Or-

Can you just see it now (in your imagination)?

[azlegalcitizen]

03:29 AM on 09/06/2011

The Tucson teachers were not teaching, they were promoting insurrection against the entire state of AZ, and every other Southwestern state. This is illegal in AZ schools, the mexicians forgot which country the iether snuck into ( as in being illegals ) or were born in, AZ which should have made the student an a proud American. As for the language tests, some of these teachers could not speak ENGLISH THAT WAS UNDERSTANDABLE BY AMERICANS. That is one defining requirement in AZ schools, no matter what the libs want. We are legally required to speak english very well, not some half a$$ed foregin version.

[Rastageneral]

05:25 PM on 09/06/2011

You got any proof of anything you said here? You got proof of any ONE thing you said. Let's take for example your comment:

"As for the language tests, some of these teachers could not speak ENGLISH THAT WAS UNDERSTAND­ABLE BY AMERICANS."

Can you provide any evidence at all of a teacher in Arizona whose English did meet a proficiency standard?

If you want to have an honest debate, I will gladly tear apart each and everyone of your assertions above, line by line, point by point, tit for tat.

However, you sound like someone who speaks from the gut (not from a logical mind). So as a test, let's see if you can back up your claim of there being uncomprehensible teachers in AZ with some proof of their existance.

I'll wait patiently for it.

[legalaid]

11:27 PM on 09/05/2011

Aren't "Chicano studies," "black studies" and "Hispanic studies" racist by nature? What if we have "white studies," too. Would that be okay?

[azlegalcitizen]

03:31 AM on 09/06/2011

Very funny joke, of course not white implies racial profiling and I am sure all the libs don't ever want racial profiling,,,,, unless it is another color that white. of course.

[LMDAustin]

10:04 PM on 09/05/2011

Good grief, this was posted early this morning, but there's only been NINE comments with 2 pending. (it's 9:00 pm now).

Doesn't look like too many people interested, huh?

There has bee NO posting of this to Facebook, NO posting on Twitter, etc.

[Puro Purepechas]

08:36 PM on 09/05/2011

Another attack on the entire working class. Chicano Power for a brighter future!

[IllTakeTheRedEye]

05:58 AM on 09/06/2011

Where is the precise city outside of the USA that a "Chicano" comes from? I'm guessing from your avatar that they are from some part of Mexico? Are "Chicanos" from a city in southern Mexico?

[Rastageneral]

05:57 PM on 09/06/2011

You're obviously confused about the subject at hand here; your questions indicate that you don't grasp neither the concepts nor the history at work behind these issues. There are classes (either in an Ethnic Studies Dept or in a regular History Dept) designed to help you delve into that subject matter with more of a critical mind... because to be brutally honest with you, if you think that Chicanos might possibly come from a city in Mexico, then you are either being facetious or you are terribly ignorant on the history of the Southwest of the United States.

Good luck when you get around to cracking open a history book - if you do.

[AntonioSaucedo]

06:13 PM on 09/05/2011

We need more education, not less.

Ethnic and Women studies are very important because one gets to hear voices that have been ignored historically. No, it's not a preaching to the choir type of deal because these classes can be very critical not just of mainstream culture but also of the social groups being studied. That's been my experience anyway.

Also, these areas of intellectual pursuit have been very helpful academically. For instance, feminist theory has revolutionized literary, sociological, and anthropological studies, as far as I'm concerned.

No, these two areas are not unAmerican. On the contrary, they're very American because they speak of the plurality of the American experience. Not always pretty, but always fascinating.

[CactusChris]

01:47 AM on 09/06/2011

Ignored by who ?

[Rastageneral]

06:12 PM on 09/06/2011

Read closer my friend... read between the lines... read a little more critically. Here's some help: "voices that have been ignored historically" means that there are voices (there is history) that has been ignored by History (by those who have written the history books).

[AntonioSaucedo]

08:35 PM on 09/06/2011

By most historians. Howard Zinn's Poeple's History is one of the few attempts at addressing the issue. Now, we have Ethnic and Women studies programs to continue the work.

[Consequence]

04:13 PM on 09/05/2011

Cheech and Chong had a song that went, "Mexican Americans take Spanish as a night class and get a 'B'...."

Ethnic Studies are like Women Studies.

They are self-indulgent and self-congratulatory, but like those getting a degree in Music or History, your only financial option is to then teach it.

There is no other need or demand for these areas of study.

[LMDAustin]

10:08 PM on 09/05/2011

So true.
F&F

[PabGomez]

04:09 PM on 09/05/2011

Why don't we teach American studies. Of what benefit is for me as a brown person to learn about "my people". I am just as American as any other. What the racists in this country would like to do is keep us fractured. The real racists here are those that keep trying to create all kinds of sub groups. My allegiance is to America an evolving country comprised of many to become one. The fight should be to include all our stories as part of one nation.

[legalaid]

11:28 PM on 09/05/2011

Hear, hear.

[Rastageneral]

06:23 PM on 09/06/2011

They do teach American studies...uh, it's actually a mandatory part of any school's curriculum for every year since they invented a curriculum - did you ditch a lot of classes from 9th - 12th grade?

And by the way, you contradict your own anti-ethnic studies argument with your own pro-ethnic studies comment: "The fight should be to include all our stories as part of one nation."... that's what ethnic studies is at its very core my friend; that's exactly why it exists.

[PabGomez]

06:57 PM on 09/06/2011

Read my comment again. Don't forget about sarcasm and nuance. There is a broader point that obviously eludes you. I did ditch a lot and did not even attend University. Just a couple community college classes. Thank God for that. At least I did not get brainwashed and I have the ability to think for myself. I do need to brush up on my grammar.

[LMPE]

02:53 PM on 09/05/2011

The issue of ethnic studies in Texas was one of the major focuses in John Sayles's "Lone Star": the school district wants to begin with the Alamo, but the Mexican-American teacher wants to include her side of history.

Too bad that Texas is now leading a race to the bottom.

[randyjet]

03:07 PM on 09/05/2011

How the hell can you teach about the Alamo without the events that led up to it? That is like teaching about WWII and starting with the A bomb on Hiroshima. It also forgets about Austin and the rest of the folks of Texas.

[randyjet]

03:10 PM on 09/05/2011

By the way, the Mexican American side of history IS the same side as that of Texas and America. Mexicans in Texas CHOSE to become independent from Mexico and thus Mexican AMERICANS. Those who did NOT, left and moved back to Mexico, and thus stayed Mexican.

[LMPE]

05:20 PM on 09/05/2011

However, another part of the story is that the Americans took over Texas because they wanted more land for plantations, as I learned in "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your History Textbook Got Wrong".