Arizona's Racist Ethnic Studies Ban Starts Tomorrow

[marmar]

Arizona's Racist Ethnic Studies Ban Starts Tomorrow


On Monday, children in Arizona will return to school after the winter break. But they'll be lacking one thing in their curriculum that existed before they left for the holidays: ethnic studies.

Effective January 1, 2010, the instruction of ethnic studies in public schools grades K-12 is illegal thanks to HB 2281, another racist bill signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer. Think of it as a companion piece to SB 1070. Far from targeting just immigrants, however, this bill will undermine the instruction of history for all students, effectively whitewashing the curriculum and writing Mexican Americans, Native Americans and other non-Anglo ethnic groups out of the curriculum. The language of the bill bans any classes that “promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

Or, as Newshour puts it, “history, anthropology and literature courses designed to teach the stories, histories, struggles and triumphs of people of color through their own unique perspectives.”

The bill was pushed through by Arizona's secretary of education, Tom Horne, who has the sole power to decide which schools are violating the new law -- and which schools should lose state funding. He's coming for Tuscon-area Mexican American studies programs in particular, in part because of a long vendetta he's had against them, detailed here in his 2007 open letter. If Tuscon public schools continue to teach ethnic studies, they could lose $36 million from their budget.

A group called Save Ethnic Studies, along with civil rights attorney Richard Martinez and 11 Tuscon teachers plan to challenge the bill in court, hoping to save a program that has increased grade point averages and raised test scores. Read more at the Arizona Daily Star.


By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd | Sourced from AlterNet
Posted at December 31, 2010, 9:23 am


http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/419305/arizona%27s_racist_ethnic_studies_ban_starts_tomorrow/

[EFerrari]

1. I don't understand how this law doesn't rule out Northern European studies.

:shrug:

[marmar]

2. LOL....Good point.

nt

[blondeatlast]

4. Well, because, um, well, ah, because, oh, um...

:shrug:

[bluestateguy]

3. Sooooo....

this would mean that a unit of study on Scots-Irish Americans or Dutch Americans would also be illegal too?

[Cleita]

5. No, they aren't considered ethnicities especially

by those who happen to be one of them. Ethnicity means you have darker skin, speak a funny language, and run around with funny clothes made of bone, grass and feathers.

[bluestateguy]

6. If that's what the law says then it is constitutionally problematic

It's one thing to ban ALL ethnic studies. That would just be bad policy. But to ban only certain ethnic studies would seem to me to run into constitutional issues.

[Cleita]

7. I hope it's problematic. It's time to

start hitting all this closet bigotry and racism in the nuts. It's the reason people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck get their followings by tapping into the subconscious bigotry of way too many Americans and that's what makes them popular, not their lies and hair brained ideas. It needs to be brought out in the open and challenged.

[glinda]

9. That is what I would think.

[blondeatlast]

8. Here's the bill in question:

http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/hb2281s.pdf

[glinda]

10. Boy that Bill is a piece of work. "Controversial history???"Well that will

be a lever to wipe out anything. "Promote hate towards a group or class of people?" DONE!

[blondeatlast]

11. Remember that it was written by the same guy who wrote SB 1070.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/09/russell-pearce-obama-papers_n_794208.html

[BalancedGoat]

17. I think you're misreading it.

"This section shall not be construed to restrict or prohibit" "courses or classes that include discussion of controversial aspects of history".

[glinda]

18. Thanks. Bill is still garbage.

[panader0]

12. On the front page of the Az Daily Star

A headline read "TUSD Affirms Decision To Keep Ethnic Studies"
Damn, I can't remember the link.....
Apparently, they have a way around the new law.

[Igel]

13. The law's written with the intent that the path left unbanned

be the one followed. It's not hard to get around the law. The law's written in such a way that "ban" doesn't strike me as the right word.

Just don't "promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals."

Personally, I consider that to follow from SCOTUS' reading of the Constitution: No school or class should provide a hostile environment to any identifiable class of students.

There are probably ways to get around the "ban" and around the law itself. Sad. I rather like that bit of Constitutional interpretation even if I do find it a bit overreaching.

[lonestarnot]

15. You like it? Maybe you could explain just what it is you like.

[lonestarnot]

14. So blatantly discriminatory as to rub it in one's face. Enough to make one want to pull some hair.

[BalancedGoat]

16. I don't really see the problem with the law.

Some on the left are calling this law a ban on ethnic studies. I don't believe that to be true.

Full text of the legislation (pdf)

Read through the law yourself and try to approach it the way a judge would.

The first few prohibitions in the bill are reasonable enough; though they do seem more like solutions still in search of a problem.

Schools shall not "promote the overthrow of the United States Government", "promote resentment toward a race or class of people" or "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals".

I have no problems with these prohibitions aside that they point to a ridiculous paranoia in the minds of some Arizona legislators. Those three things have no place in our education system.

The next prohibition is a little more tricky.

Schools shall not include classes that "are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group".

This clause raises a few questions. Is a course or study program that focuses on a specific ethnic group inherently "designed primarily for pupils of" said ethnic group? Is there a significant difference between a generic African American studies course and an African American studies course for African Americans? I would conclude that there is indeed a difference to the two. One is a welcome addition to public education system while the other has no place. Now one must determine if the law is aimed at all ethnic studies programs, or just the ones geared specifically for students of a specific ethnicity. My reading is that it is only the latter of the two that the law targets. Ethnic Study programs that are inclusive and open to all students are perfectly fine under this law.

TUSD board affirms decision to keep ethnic studies

This school district seems to agree with my reading.

The resolution specifically addressed the new law, stating the ethnic-studies program does nothing to violate the law.

According to the resolution, TUSD "recognizes its Ethnic Studies courses in no way, shape or form promote the overthrow of the United States government" and "that the inclusion of historical oppression … within the curriculum does not inherently promote the resentment of a particular group of people nor does it promote anti-American sentiments."