On January 18th, NPR aired an interview with John Hupenthal the Superintendent of Arizona Public Instruction and the author of a state law banning ethnic studies programs. According to Hupenthal, the law was conceived, in part, because of the "failure of the Tucson Unified School District to provide a good education to low income Hispanic children..." When encouraged by interviewer Michel Martin to give him an example of the kind of egregious "Marxist" education students were being exposed to and that, allegedly, was having such a deleterious effect on their educational achievement, Hupenthal responded that the teachers were giving "Classroom exercises in which they had students identify and go through these exercises dealing with different times and territorial shifts in the United States." His most pressing assertion, however, was the idea that these classes imposed upon Hispanic students the idea that "they can't get ahead, that they're victims in, you know, a country in which Barack Obama is president." The segment encapsulates and foregrounds the stakes of the debate over ethnic studies in Arizona and across the nation.
Mr. Hupenthal is correct when he asserts that the educational system is broken, and further, he is correct when he acknowledges that Hispanic children in the Tucson school district are being underserved by their educational system, but to take those facts and to use them as justification for cutting the entire field of ethnic studies, is to miss the larger point. These same students, and those like them all over the country, are also being failed by their instruction in math and reading from Kindergarten through High School. Does this mean that we should stop teaching them reading? Does this mean that we should stop teaching them math?
What Hupenthal and the Arizona legislature have done is to denigrate, through erasure, the contributions of people of color to the social, economic and political fabric of the United States, our United States. And they have done so by perpetuating the long-standing practice of targeting ethnic studies as a scapegoat for larger, persistent social inequalities that have defined, and continue to define, the social reality of the United States. They have, to put it another way, shot the messenger for bearing the bad news. To suggest, as he does, that cutting these programs will help improve the quality of education of struggling students is absurd. It shows a startling lack of understanding about the role these classes play and what they represent.
Hupenthal and those who support him have made two critical mistakes in their conceptualization of ethnic studies in education. Underlying their actions is the assumption that these courses are "entitlement" courses that give students of color "something extra," something they don't deserve, something that white students don't get. In this regard their hostility towards ethnic studies is rooted in a hatred for affirmative action. For people like Hupenthal, affirmative action is a crime because it gives students of color special treatment. The problem with this line of thinking, of course, is that it ignores basic facts about our society. While the United States remains, in many ways, a place that offers more freedom and more opportunity than many other places, it has yet to deal honestly and openly with the core issue of its persistent racism and social inequality. Simply put, Race matters in the U.S.
Affirmative action is one small but important effort to address the fact that bias, prejudice and outright racism have conspired, over the centuries and well into today, to keep communities of color in lower socio-economic positions. Let me put it this way: If we understand racism and social bias to be the cancer that has slowly and consistently ravaged the body politic of the U.S., then affirmative action is a form of radiation treatment. It is not perfect. It is painful and it will not cure the cancer. But it goes a long way to improving the lives of all us: blacks, indigenous, latinos, and whites who suffer from the debilitating effects of cancerous racism. Until we can find the cure for this cancer, we have to put faith in the treatments we have at our disposal.
The second major ideological mistake made by Hupenthal and company, is their idea that Mexican-American courses and programs are for and about Mexican-Americans. This same faulty logic underscores our basic understanding of ethnic studies programs in general. We think they are about people of color. They are not. Yes, they spend significant time detailing the histories of people of color but they are, at heart, courses about us, all of us. They are about how we as a society, and as a nation, have dealt with our diversity. And what makes them so important is that they reveal truths that we have been embarrassed or afraid to face up to: The injection of syphilis on unsuspecting sharecroppers in Tuskegee. The lynchings of blacks and Mexicans throughout the centuries. The disparities in how our legal system punishes white criminals in contrast to minority defendants. The fact that our founding fathers were slave owners. The fact that when the Southwest became part of the U.S. we promised Mexicans their rights as newly-minted U.S. citizens and then systematically robbed them of their land, their social rights and, most importantly, their dignity. Most of these issues and realities go unaddressed in traditional history courses. And so we all, people of color and white students alike, grow up being taught to love our country under false pretenses.
The misguided decision taken by Hupenthal and the Arizona legislators to ban ethnic studies turns truth into criminal behavior. It recasts Latinos and communities of color as outsiders, blaming them for their struggles in our flawed educational system. And perhaps most painfully, it robs the students of Arizona, all of them, of the possibility of loving the real America, not the dolled up, sanitized and siliconized version we've been raised on. What Hupenthal fails to realize is that we shouldn't be expected to truly love a lie. Ethnic studies is about seeing and loving the U.S. as it really is with all of its flaws and failures. And loving these United States, in spite of its flaws, with the hope of addressing and fixing our collective shortcomings, is the ultimate act of patriotism and respect.
http://www.tusd1.org/contents/events_ethnic2.html
http://www.tusd1.org/contents/govboard/Documents/ResolutionMAS011012.pdf
My take on this move is that the consolidated social studies program makes it easy to tend towards exposing the students to only one worldview. Regardless of who the author of this single worldview is, it eliminates the opportunity for students to draw their own conclusions about and make connections between the different narratives of history from multiple perspectives as seen in the universal light of the fact that we are all human beings.
This is not an issue exclusive to TUSD, Mexican-Americans, White Americans, or miscellaneous other labels used in rhetoric to divide and isolate us, human beings, the one people of the world. It is an issue with this very isolation, which will drive us to divide and misinform our students until the day the human race winks out of existence. Students seek knowledge, truth, and understanding, but have historically been hobbled by those who dare to call themselves educators who view students only as banks in which to deposit blindness and complacency until each is a uniform container of seductively comfortable, "that's the way it is," mentality. These impostors impart ignorance where they should impart curiosity and promote status quo when they should catalyze a drive for justice. These "teachers" promote a parochial system that chokes creativity. When students are not allowed to think creatively, critical thinking is crushed, thereby crushing the foundation of basic intelligence.
Why is this not ok? Because The United States is made up of a large demographic of people. It is important to teach a perspective other than the white male conquerer that wrote the history books. Our history has many stories from many different perspectives and it is important to know that some of our most important hero's, fighters, inventors, doctors, researchers inventors and writers that have shaped The US come from all over the world. Educate yourselves people! Oh wait, they were trying but sorry, Mexican American studies has been canceled.
This article talks about many famous Mexicans that helped shape The United States: http://www.ma.iup.edu/Pueblo/latino_cultures/contrib.html
Ethnic Studies continues without interruption in Arizona and in TUSD schools:
Asian Pacific Studies- http://wwwÂÂ.tusd1.orÂgÂ/contentÂs/Âdepart/ÂpanÂasian/ÂindeÂx.asp ,
African American Studies- http://wwwÂÂ.tusd1.orÂgÂ/contentÂs/Âdepart/ÂaasÂtudiesÂ/indÂex.asÂp
Native American Studies- http://wwwÂÂ.tusd1.orÂgÂ/contentÂs/Âdepart/ÂNatÂive/inÂdex.Âasp .
The books are not banned either. They are available in the school libraries right now.
http://wwwÂ.tusd1.orgÂ/contents/Ânews/pressÂ1112/01-17Â-12.html
Reports of TUSD book ban completely false and misleading
Posted: January 17, 2012
Contact: Cara Rene, CommunicatÂion Director, (520) 225-6101, Cara.Rene@Âtusd1.org
Tucson Unified School District has not banned any books, as has been widely and incorrectlÂy reported. Seven books used as supporting materials for Mexican American Studies have been moved to the district storage facility, because the classes have been suspended, as per the ruling those classes were in violation of State law ARS 15-112....
NONE of the books have been banned by TUSD... .Every one of the books is still available to students through several school libraries....
Other books have also been falsely reported as banned. It was incorrectlÂy reported that William ShakespearÂe’s “The Tempest†is not allowed for instructioÂn. Teachers may continue to use materials in their classrooms as appropriate for the course curriculumÂ. “The Tempest†and other books approved for curriculum are still viable options for instructorÂs....
How exactly are Whites keeping the Brown man down? Please elaborate: Thanks
“Houston writers & activists organize a caravan of Librotraficantes to smuggle contraband books back into Arizona!
The caravan will be filled with authors and activists who will be taking banned books back into Arizona, to give to students. The bus will include banned authors, new authors, as well as concerned advocates of First Amendment rights of Equal Protection and Freedom of Speech.
The Caravan will be making stops in Texas, New Mexico, and, of course, Arizona.
Banned writers have embraced the caravan and will participate along the route, including Mac Arthur Genius recipient Sandra Cisneros, who kicked off our fundraising efforts by making a generous donation; Guggenheim Fellow Dagoberto Gilb, whose work recently appeared in the New Yorker and Harpers; and best selling author Luis Alberto Urrea, who was the first to enthusiastically support the project through Twitter.â€
View and join the live on-line Q/A discussion with Rodolfo "Rudy" Acuña and guests.
"Banning Books in AZ, Impact on Educating Latinos in the US"
Show guest: Dr. Rodolfo "Rudy" Acuña, PhD @ 6:30 pm (PT)
Thursday, February 16, 2012
6:30 - 8:00 pm (PT)
Live global web broadcast via www.livestream.com/lsacnational
NO books have been banned at all and NO books have been labeled as contraband.
People claiming they are 'smuggling' in the books that are already available in the school libraries look adolescent (crying: you're not the boss of me) at best and robustly dishonest at worst (mostly just ineffective and silly, I suppose).
Why don't Hispanics in TUSD deserve well-qualified and certified teachers?
http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2008/05/21/85853-guest-opinion-raza-studies-gives-rise-to-racial-hostility/
"During the 2002-2003 school year, I taught a U.S. history course with a Mexican-American perspective. The course was part of the Raza/Chicano studies department.
Within one week of the course beginning, I was told that I was a “teacher of record,†meaning that I was expected only to assign grades. The Raza studies department staff would teach the class.
I was assigned to be a “teacher of record†because some members of the Raza studies staff lacked teaching certificates. It was a convenient way of circumventing the rules."
(emphasis added)
Why don't Hispanics in TUSD deserve well-developed and high-quality classroom educational materials?
From the court record- http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/documents/doc/122711_tusd_mas_doc/:
"28. It is undisputed that from January 1, 2011 through June 15, 2011, the MAS program did not have a comprehensive written curriculum and did not have textbooks or materials that had been approved by the District’s governing board."
"38. Auditors were informed that there was no District policy “specifying a consistent practice for daily or cumulative lesson plan retention,†and it was common practice for the MAS high school teachers to “write the plan on the board.†However, MAS Director Arce testified that there is a district-wide policy requiring lesson plans and syllabuses to be in writing and approved....

40. Department Associate Superintendent Hrabluk explained that the “scope and sequence†of lessons, an understanding of State standards, and a pacing guide that would outline how the materials would be taught during the school year are necessary parts of a sound curriculum."
(emphasis added)
So, why are mostly Hispanic children subjected to unqualified and uncertified classroom 'teachers' and provided with low-quality materials thrown together on the fly? And why is anyone defending the program where that was typical and routine?
Let’s assume you are right in that “NO books have been banned†& “Hispanics in TUSD deserve well-quali-fied and certified teacher†- however I disagree with you on your contention that the Raza or Chicano’s motives are un-American – you are wrong.
• The Revolutionary War: The Spanish Government & the Spanish American colonists financed the Revolutionary War. Under the leadership of Spanish General Bernardo de Gálvez, the Spanish American armies defeated the British troops along the entire the Mississippi River and expelled the British forces from the Gulf of Mexico. Gálvez’s combined armies included Mexican soldiers as well as General Girón y Moctezuma a direct descendent of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II. The educational question is why isn’t Thomas E. Chávez, “Spain and the Independence of the United States: An Intrinsic Gift†required reading in the public classrooms.
• On the Western Frontiers, there are heroic stories about Daniel Boone & Davey Crockett but no mention of Juan Bautista de Anza who not only tamed the Southwest but also transported settlers through uncharted territory to Northern California and defeated the Comanche War Chief Cuerno Verde who was terrorizing the Spanish Pueblos of New Mexico. The educational question is why isn’t Wilfred O. Martinez, “Anza and Cuerno Verde: Decisive Battle†required reading in public classrooms.
I love this country of ours and feel that a good rounded education should serves all Americans, including minorities.
Unless the student is preparing herself for a career in Chicano studies.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/12/nation/la-na-ethnic-studies-20100512
http://www.thenation.com/blog/165989/challenging-arizonas-ban-ethnic-studies
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/05/arizona_gov_signs_ethnicstudie.html
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-01-16/news/30633590_1_book-ban-mexican-american-studies-ethnic-studies
There is NO State law in Arizona banning ethnic studies programs. Period. End of story. The Mexican American Studies program in ONE school district in Arizona was temporarily suspended by a vote of it's school board. All other ethnic studies programs in Tucson, and in the entire State of Arizona, including Mexican American Studies, continue unaffected. This is a fact. If a handful of other articles have reported incorrect facts, that does not make it true, or reduce the responsibility to report the truth.
There is no State law in Arizona banning ethnic studies programs. If the author claims otherwise, prove it.
Don't flippin tell me that ethnic studies are not needed in the US. We have 300 years of bad propaganda to reverse. We aren't even close to dismanteling our ignorance. If we were, the Tea Party wouldn't exist.
Oh wait... now I get it. Tricky! Very tricky!
2) In a recent study done on the Citizenship Test (2011) more than 50% of US citizens taking the test failed it!