By Pablo Aceves
Raza Press and Media Association
April 30, 2011
Raza youth in Tucson are adding another chapter in our people’s history of heroism and resistance -even as these words are being written.
On Tuesday, April 26, at the School Board, Raza students from the organization UNIDOS packed the meeting, chained themselves to the board seats, and began chanting to save Raza Studies in schools and against the racist, colonial attacks our gente are facing throughout the state of Nazizona.
Anyone who watches the video of this brave action can see the private security at the meeting manhandling the young activistas. At one point a young compañera’s breasts are grabbed in an “attempt to subdue” her. The juventud fought off the racist security guards and the cops, and did not allow the meeting to continue. What these young Raza have shown us all is their coraje and determination to defend Raza Studies and not back down. With Raza inside and outside chanting, “fight back” the youth took the microphone and made their position known that day.
Taking control of the dais the youth unfurled a banner with the slogan “Youth School Board” and showed those present and our community that selling out our community’s interests working within the system and the Democratic Party is not the only answer. Their actions and their message were to challenge not only the racists that are attempting to eliminate Raza Studies but also to our community that we have the potential to build our institutions and teach our own history and reality.
This action comes at an appropriate time when the world commemorates International Workers Day, more commonly referred to as May Day. These young people’s actions will only further emphasize the importance of remembering that the true story of Raza, other Indigenous people, Africans, and all oppressed people is the story of workers and our class struggle against exploitation around the world.
As expected, the reactionaries were quick to counter attack. In addition to the violent actions of the private security guard force unsuccessfully trying to suppress the students, there were the subsequent responses by the local newspaper, the Arizona Republic that served up their racist slant on the protest actions.
If viewed objectively, the greatest problem posed by the study courses, as currently taught, is that they deny all American students the right to learn about the history of their country and the complex, unique way its government functions. Adding a genuine academic view of Mexican-American history and culture would be of extraordinary value to all students living in the American Southwest and not necessarily as a replacement to core curriculum
However, the threat is more due to the challenge to right wing White Power and there is the fear of our organizing in our defense and for our own power on our land. In this same vein, we see the reaction of ultra-conservative Superintendent Tom Horne who has attacked Raza and all ethnic studies as “promoting ethnic solidarity and chauvinism.” What he means and has meant is that they don’t promote White Chauvinism, which is what has been taught to our youth for years. Yes, ethnic solidarity is what is taught to us but it is WHITE ethnic solidarity and chauvinism that deliberately confuses our young people.
Now, in the aftermath of this heroic takeover, according to a Phoenix KTVK television station report, Horne called for the youth to be “prosecuted” saying, “I think this illustrates what the students are being taught in the ethnic studies class… they’re teaching them to be disruptive, instead of using freedom of speech to talk to each other and listen to each other.”
“These are young impressionable kids, they’re influenced by their teachers, I mean they didn’t learn this behavior, I believe their parents taught them to be polite.” Horne was quoted saying to Phoenix’s KSAZ station.
It is ironic that this anti-Mexican bully who was the Superintendent of Public Instruction and who is now Nazizona’s Attorney General doesn’t seem to mind that these “impressionable kids” are manipulated by U.S. military recruiters to become part of the imperialist war machine, or that they are also manipulated by the military to invade countries to kill innocent women and children who share a common oppressor – U.S. Imperialism – who they should be fighting alongside with and not against.
It is also interesting that Horne makes reference to their parents, the same ones he is so set on deporting, and then sarcastically demanding that Raza students be “polite.” Well, we say it is time for politeness to go out the window in favor of uncompromising and sustained struggle.
It is clear why Raza Studies is coming under attack not only in Arizona but everywhere. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and other like racist laws will not succeed as long as our people have a collective conciencia and know our history. What this attack aims is not only to oppress us but is an attempt to break our spirit. The fact that our juventud took over the school board dais and continue to struggle only instills a growing fear in racists like Horne.
To Horne and company it is “urgent” to stop Raza and other ethnic studies from continuing, saying it should be “illegal” because it advocates the “overthrow of the government” and the return of our stolen land. It should be noted that Horne and his cronies never refute this claim.
As long as we know our history, we can resist. As long as they can continue erasing it, they can feel justified to treat us like animals, exploiting us and propping up their decaying system on our backs and in our own land. This is the time for more militant, uncompromising struggle like the one we saw in Tucson on April 26. More than that, it is the time to join independent Raza organizations who will fight for nothing less than our gente’s liberation and a world where there is no more exploited and exploiters.
It should be said also, that there is a special responsibility that falls on Raza journalists, to tell not only the story, but to be a part of the unfolding events to our liberation. We must also defend the right to interpret our history and assist in determining our future.
However, when we refer to Raza journalists, we are not talking about the Spanish language talking heads with peroxide blond hair and blue contacts on Univision and Telemundo, or payasos on trash radio like Piolin in Los Angeles –who serve to pacify our community. We are referring to journalism that is tied to organization and to struggle against an unequal and unjust system.
On that note, we must also expose the system so-called “responsible Hispanic voices” who make lukewarm arguments like “its just not fair” and imploring the system that ethnic studies is “not a threat.” Enough time has been spent trying to convince these oppressors that we won’t “hurt them” when emphasis should be on organizing our gente. Every time an action like this takes place, the juventud wind up at the mercy of the system’s “responsible Hispanics” who want to calm things down.
Well, it is not time to be calmed down, it is time to bust things wide open to defend and expand Raza Studies in Arizona and everywhere. It is time to struggle in defense of our communities and oppressed people everywhere.