By Sal Baldenegro

Hello, and greetings from Tucson, Arizona! My name is Sal Baldenegro, and I’m very happy to be blogging for Being Latino! My first blog is about HB2281, or the “ethnic studies ban”, as it is known.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of month, then you know that the State of Arizona has passed a law that bans “ethnic studies” from all school curriculum. This law is a major component to the racist attack on Latinos by the Arizona State Legislature, and is a central part of the political firestorm that we find ourselves in. Why should we care, though? Why are ethnic studies so important to our children’s education and to the teaching of American history?

First of all, it is very important to understand that Arizona HB2281 is squarely aimed at Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American/Raza Studies program. Arizona State Superintendent Tom Horne has made it his singular mission to destroy this unique program that we, here in Tucson, are so proud of. He has done this despite never attending a single class, and never reading the two books that he has specifically called to ban: “Occupied America” by Rodolfo Acuña, and “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”, by Paulo Freire. That’s right, you read correctly; Horne is actively seeking to ban books. No, this isn’t 1551, during the Spanish Inquisition, nor is it 1692, during the Salem Witch Trials. It’s Arizona, 2010. But, I digress.

The attack is clearly targeted towards TUSD’s Mexican-American/Raza studies, but keep in mind that the ban on ethnic studies applies not only to Mexican-American Studies, but to TUSD’s African-American, Native American, and Pan-Asian studies programs, as well. That is to say that the American history of Jim Crow laws, Slavery, Japanese-American internment, Native American genocide, and so much more will be, essentially, swept under the rug or simply relegated to minor footnotes in “regular” American history classrooms.

Is this the right way to teach American history? Is it acceptable for our history courses to leave out historical events and periods that are inconvenient to certain political agendas? I’ve mentioned some shameful periods of U.S. history, but there are even more things that many people outside of Arizona and the Southwest U.S. don’t know about. For example, how many people know that it was standard practice, for years, for Mexican-American children to be physically beaten for speaking Spanish in school? Or, that public swimming pools, in many cities, were “whites only”, except for one day out of the week, after which the pools would be drained and “cleaned”? And this is only scratching the surface of some of the outright racism and violence that was perpetrated on Mexican-Americans in the Southwestern U.S. These are ugly parts of American history, but they are important. They are important because learning about them allows us to understand what has happened in the past, and gives us the ability to heal and move on to become a more righteous and just country that is open to people of all races and ethnicities.

Furthermore, ethnic studies classes teach about the many contributions to this country that have been made by Americans of ALL backgrounds. This allows our children to see that this country has been built by many different kinds of people, including many people that look like them. This instills, in them, a sense of pride and self-worth that is invaluable.

This law is aimed at our children, which makes it truly evil, in every sense. It is designed to separate them from their history and, consequently, their very identity. It is the latest attempt, in a long line, to make them ashamed of their brown skin, their Spanish names, and their Mexican culture and descent. It seeks to make them look to White Anglo-Saxon Protestant society as the “American” norm to what they must aspire to. That is what this law is truly designed to do. Rest assured, though, that as long as the sun shines, and as long as blood flows through our hearts, we will fight these hateful and bigoted people. And we will win.

Source: Being Latino’s Blog

By ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ

As a result of several recent draconian laws, Arizona’s image has taken a drubbing internationally. And yet, Arizona is but the spear. In reality, its politics are not that dramatically different from other states and not that different from Washington. That more than a dozen states are waiting in the wings with copycat legislation and that the Obama administration continues to view migration through a law enforcement and military prism is plenty proof.

Those politics, fueled by hateful and cowardly politicians and the hate-radio universe, are undeniably anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant. Yet in truth, they actually are anti-Indigenous. In effect, the politics that we are seeing are undeniably but an extension of Manifest Destiny. Its modern expression is a Manifest Insanity – an attempt to maintain the myth of America – conceived of as a promise of a pristine, God-given home – reserved for English-speaking White Anglo Saxon Protestants, this amid the “browning” of the nation.

These Arizona laws are part of a spasmodic reaction to this demographic shift, an attempt to maintain a political and cultural dominance over [brown] peoples seen as less than human and as defeated peoples. These laws seek to maintain this narrative of conquest. This is why the loss of lives of some 5,000 Mexicans and Central Americans – primarily Indigenous peoples ––in the Arizona/Sonora desert in the past dozen years, mean little in this clash. The same is true in regards to the recent killings of two Mexicans by U.S. agents along the U.S./Mexico border.

For those who are attempting to uphold this dominance, this browning represents a time reversal – a cultural and political reversal of the so-called triumph of Western Civilization. This is what Arizona represents; a civilizational clash and a clash of narratives over the myth of America itself. Nothing less.

Rodolfo Acuña, author of Occupied America, came to Arizona last week, offering a stark reminder about this clash. His book – along with Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed – has been at the center of the anti-ethnic studies firestorm and law – HB 2281 – signed last month by Gov. Jan Brewer (She had signed SB 1070 – the racial profiling law – the previous month). The controversy surrounding his book has been fueled by an extreme Eurocentric ignorance. For several years, State Superintendent, Tom Horne, has been pushing an “Americanization” agenda, insisting that Arizona students be exposed only to “Greco-Roman” knowledge. Knowledge centered elsewhere is generally considered subversive and un-American, including Mesoamerican or Maize knowledge – knowledge that is Indigenous to this continent It is this knowledge that is at the philosophical heart of Mexican American or Raza Studies. Arizona is not alone in this insanity; Texas Education officials recently banned the inclusion of labor leader Dolores Huerta in Texas school curriculums.

Horne, via HB 2281, has long-claimed that Raza Studies preaches hate, results in segregation and promotes anti-Americanism and the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Truth is, he has had a vendetta against Raza Studies since Dolores Huerta proclaimed in 2006 at Tucson High that Republicans “hate Latinos.” Horne, who constantly denigrates her as “Cesar Chavez’s former girlfriend,” and his allies have spent the past several years trying to prove her right.

As Acuña found out in Arizona, for some, having a different philosophical center, in and of itself, constitutes a threat to this cultural and political domination. More than that, it threatens the national narrative of having tamed a wild, savage and empty continent… of having conquered, exterminated and civilized “the Indians.”

Enter Occupied America and it upsets the carefully crafted myth and narrative of the United States as the land of freedom and democracy or Paradise on Earth.

Raza Studies critics in Arizona – including media professionals – are barely familiar with Acuña’s book (He matter-of-factly tells them to read his book before attacking). At best, they spar over its title and a few catch phrases (mistranslating La Raza to mean “The Race” as opposed to “The People”) and attempt to denigrate an entire discipline on the basis of their ignorance. Yet, at the core, the critics are correct. Ethnic Studies indeed is a threat to the myth of America – the mythical America where genocide, land theft, slavery and dehumanization are denied or are but mere footnotes, as opposed to being the recognized foundation of this nation (Unchallenged, this glossed-over view is what permits U.S. citizens to view permanent war as a God-given birthright). With such a denial, the concept of Occupied America – an occupied continent – becomes unfathomable. The narrative of an empty continent, incidentally, is what permits the myth of “no occupation.”

The best Raza Studies critics do is attempt to dehumanize Mexicans/Chicanos. In their conjured up narrative, Mexicans/Chicanos are neither legitimate Americans, nor legitimate human beings. Neither are they afforded the status of Indigenous peoples; at best, they are mongrels, undeserving of full human rights. This dominant narrative is dependent upon this process of de-Indigenization and dehumanization. Those of us that cannot be deported (can’t wait for next year’s Arizona battle over the 14th amendment and birthright citizenship) are welcome here, as long as we participate in our own assimilation or ethnic cleansing and are happily subservient and willing to accept this nation’s mythologized narrative.

That’s the definition of Manifest Insanity.

Roberto Rodriguez, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, can be reached at XColumn@gmail.com

Source: CounterPunch
Poster By: Erenesto Yerena