|
|
 |
Countdown in Arizona for Todos Somos Raza
Studies
Roberto Dr. Cintli
Rodriguez
New America Media
Sep 29, 2010
The lines have been drawn.
Or rather, the date has been set and the countdown has begun. If Arizona
State Schools Superintendent Tom Horne has his way, after Dec. 31, 2010,
Tucson Unified School District’s (TUSD) highly successful
Mexican-American Studies K-12 department will cease to exist.
But despite Gov. Jan Brewer having signed HB 2281, the anti–ethnic
studies measure, in May, those who support Raza Studies have good reason
to feel confident that on January 1, the program will be alive and well.
HB 2281 bans schools from teaching hate, anti-Americanism and the
violent overthrow of the U.S. government. Horne, the measure's
“intellectual author,” claims that Raza Studies advocates these ideas
and promotes “ethnic solidarity” that results in racial segregation in
schools.
In fact, in Raza Studies students are taught the arts, language,
philosophy and other concepts associated with Mesoamerican peoples whose
cultures derived from maiz.
HB 2281 does not call for the outright elimination of Raza/Ethnic
studies. Instead, it calls for the withdrawal of 10 percent of district
funds for every month that a program is found to be out of compliance.
For TUSD, that would amount to $3 million per month, a sum it can ill
afford to lose.
The day after HB 2281 was signed—and after Horne threatened to show up
at TUSD headquarters to do a victory lap—hundreds upon hundreds of
students and community activists laid siege to TUSD headquarters and,
later, to the state building, resulting in 15 arrests. During this
siege, TUSD’s Board of Governors issued a statement from the acting
superintendent. In its entirety, it reads:
“TUSD proudly supports our Ethnic Studies classes. We have no plans to
eliminate or reduce course offerings. We believe these courses are
relevant, engaging, meet state standards and are in full compliance with
the law. Additionally, they are part of our unitary status plan. We
stand firmly behind our Ethnic Studies Department, staff members and
students.”
The statements are a clear indication that if the program is ruled out
of compliance, it will be the antithesis of local control and the
epitome of foreign (state) intervention. Horne’s goal— as he has
repeatedly stated—is to rule Raza Studies out of compliance and to
eliminate the program by the end of the year.
As a result, a historic lawsuit against Horne is forthcoming. The
consensus amongst Tucson’s Mexican- American community is that come Jan.
3, 2011, Raza Studies will be fully operational—continuing to educate
and inspire minds and prepare students to attend colleges and
universities nationwide. The program is virtually an anti-dropout
program (more than a 90 percent graduation rate) and a college student
factory (upwards of 70 percent go on to college). But that doesn’t seem
to impress Horne. Instead, his primary concern is ensuring that only
Greco-Roman knowledge—the purported basis for Western Civilization—is
taught in Arizona schools.
Raza Studies grounds students in critical thinking and in Indigenous
pedagogies—on maiz-based or Maya-Nahua knowledge and understanding that
is thousands of years old and originates on this very continent.
Despite this, Horne and his legislative allies claim that Raza Studies
is un-American. In court, Horne will have his hands full in defining
these terms. Can things that originate in Greece and Rome be considered
American, while knowledge that originates on the American continent be
considered un-American and not part of Western civilization?
HB 2281 makes a clumsy attempt to isolate Raza Studies—it allows for the
teaching of the Holocaust and African-American studies and purportedly
exempts American Indian Studies classes required by federal laws. The
measure appears to be a clear discriminatory effort to eliminate Raza
Studies.
In the realm of definitions, will maiz-based knowledge also be ruled as
not Indigenous or not “American Indian”?
The forthcoming lawsuit will have the historic impact of the Scopes
Monkey Trial or Brown v. Topeka Board of Education. What happens here in
Arizona will set a legal precedent not only regarding what can be taught
in public schools, but also whether states have the right to restrict,
censor, dictate, intimidate and overrule what districts and educators
can teach in local schools.
HB 2281 is the epitome of forced assimilation. Ultimately, the struggle
here in Arizona is over the inherent right—also enshrined in treaties
and international laws—of children to learn about their own histories
and cultures.
Roberto Rodriguez, a professor at the University of Arizona and a member
of the Mexican-American Studies Community Advisory Board, can be reached
at:
XColumn@gmail.com
|
