More bombastic lies from a consumate liar and racist. It's already been determined and in fact, EXPOSED AS TO WHAT WAS BEING TAUGHT.
News
Phoenix NewsLocal News BlogFeathered BastardSpecial ReportsAsk a MexicanArchives SearchWeekly NewsletterGet Mobile
Phoenix RestaurantsFood BlogRestaurant ReviewsFind a RestaurantMenusHappy HoursDealsDining NewsletterGet MobileRestaurant Ads
Phoenix ArtsArts BlogPhoenix TheaterThe Advice GoddessBig Brain AwardsArts NewsletterGet MobileEntertainment Ads
Cynical Politicians in Tucson's Ethnic Studies Case Will Be on History's Losing Side
The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday has come and gone. Just another day off for many. For others, a time of reflection.
Uriel Garcia
Ethnic-studies hater and state schools Superintendent John Huppenthal, channeling Jesse Helms and Ev Mecham.
We all know that enemies of MLK Day, in Arizona and elsewhere, did not want King's or African Americans' struggle for civil rights in this county honored.
Former Arizona Governor Evan Mecham stated infamously that King didn't "deserve" a holiday. He was proved wrong.
But it wasn't just Mecham or Arizona that was intransigent. When a federal MLK Day was in the works in the early 1980s, I recall Jesse Helms, a U.S. senator in my home state of North Carolina, publicly opposing a bill to that end — which ultimately was signed by President Ronald Reagan.
Helms used the issue to get himself re-elected in 1984, appealing to the basest emotions of those in a white majority who did not want King, or the civil rights struggle he represented, remembered.
The senator smeared King as a commie. In fact, it was King who represented the best in the American experience, and Helms, a lifelong race baiter, the worst.
Mecham and Helms, each in his way, used history as a weapon. Forgetting about civil rights was what a lot of whites wanted. Same for the horrors of slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, segregation, and the tyranny of white supremacy.
Here in Arizona, just weeks away from the state's centennial, a ruling Republican clique has taken a page from the Helms-Mecham playbook. It would like to wipe away the contributions of Chicanos from the history books, and this cabal is getting its way. For now.
Less than a week before the King holiday, the Tucson Unified School District did this clique's bidding and abolished the popular and successful Mexican American Studies program, under siege since House Bill 2281 was passed into law in 2010.
The statute's express purpose was to eradicate MAS, and the law's pimp daddy, former state Schools Superintendent Tom Horne, used its passage to get himself elected Arizona attorney general.
Current schools Superintendent John Huppenthal attained his position through a promise to end MAS, as well. And he's been keeping his promise. Though in this case, that's nothing for him to be proud of.
The statute bans classes that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment, are designed for a particular ethnic group, or advocate ethnic solidarity.
Overly broad and probably unconstitutional, the law empowers the state superintendent to withhold 10 percent of state funding for any school district that does not comply.
It took about a year of wrangling, but after Administrative Law Judge Lewis Kowal denied an appeal by the district of Huppenthal's June finding of non-compliance, Huppenthal finally was able to pull the trigger and issue a 10 percent penalty retroactive to August 2011.
That is, unless TUSD buckled, accordingly.
And buckle the board did. It had other legal options. It could have challenged Huppenthal in superior court. But the board was hijacked by quislings willing to do Huppenthal's bidding.
MAS students and the community in general showed up en masse to speak out against the move, but the board did not entertain other options.
As has been documented at length in Tucson writer David Abie Morales' Three Sonorans blog, the results have been immediate and chilling.
Literature and history teachers have been instructed to avoid controversial subjects. Their books have been boxed, confiscated, and hauled off to a depository for storage.
Offending texts include everything from works on Chicano history, such as Rethinking Columbus and Occupied America, to acclaimed coming-of-age novels, such as Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima, to even Shakespeare's The Tempest.
The district has denied shelving Shakespeare, but The Tempest — in which the bard addressed the theme of slavery — certainly won't be taught in the context of MAS, which now is verboten. Neither will any of the other texts. But students may have access to some of them via school libraries. In other cases, non-MAS classes may take up the less controversial of the bunch.
Students have told how forbidden books were boxed up in front of them on orders of TUSD administrators. Morales' site features these students' testimonies. Some were emotional as they recounted what occurred.
Chicano literature teacher Yolanda Sotelo explained in one video that she was told that TUSD monitors would visit her classroom to make sure she wasn't venturing into taboo realms.
Sotelo related how she spent a year finding books that her students "really enjoyed," like Matt de la Pena's acclaimed young-adult novel Mexican White Boy.
"But now we can't read Mexican White Boy," she said.
Why? Because it was mentioned in Kowal's obtuse ruling backing Huppenthal.
Essentially, Kowal is a seriously white white boy — so white that, in his ruling, he thought a song by the popular norteño band Los Tigres del Norte, which had been a part of one lesson plan, actually was a poem.
The song, "Somos Mas Americanos" (or "We Are More American"), tells the history of the Southwest through the eyes of migrants.
"America was born free, but men divided it," the lyrics read. "They marked a line so that I [could] jump it, and they call me 'invader.'"
70 comments
You idiot ass. You are attacking American citizens that dedicated their lives to education and fairness, two things that ARE NOT WHAT THE MAS CLASSES WERE ABOUT. God, get a clue.
"Toe headed",etc. You ass. European-Americans created the laws and conditions, and in fact, this whole United States of America making it possible for that Hidpanic to be a doctor or lawyer here. You need to gain some serious respect for the people that built this nation you are living so well in.
You devious lying sack of ....... You know damn well that the agenda of those classes was political and anti-European American, like yourself. They were caught teaching subversive and racist bullshit in true classical conditioning fashion, with such phrases as "white" superiority, and a white agenda to keep "hispanics" down, and you know it,you bald faced liar.
All of us brown skin Mexicans presently occupying "El Norte", need to return to Mexico and take over the country from the pale skin descendants of the colonial masters. Kick out all the white skin occupiers of Mexico, our tue homeleand, with the help of Gustavo Arellano who will renounce his stay in "El Norte". He will be our new presidente in Mexico. Will you join us and Gustavo Arellano?
I just switched over from the Huff Post to this because I couldn't believe how hateful and racist most of the comments on this subject were on that site. The comments here are just as bad, but then, what can we expect from a state that did everything it could not to have a MLK holiday? It's unbelievable that people can't recognize that American history, and especially Arizona history, is not all about the white guys. Everyone deserves to know about how our diversity contributed to the development of the nation. The ignorance is truly horrifying.
MAS in a nutshell:
There were once native americans who lived in mexico, just like there was in other parts of north america. They were conquered and essentially enslaved by the Spanish. The Spanish got their ass kicked by texas, and the US, and lost the land that is now Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California. After being beat up by the US, the local Spainiards and native central americans revolted and won their independence. Some of the natives ended up living in mexico, others ended up in the US. THERE IS NO POSSIBILITY OF CHANGING WHO OWNS WHAT LAND NOW, SO STOP THINKING ABOUT IT. The end.
This attitude is what is being outlawed. Teaching falsehoods likek "the ground is the native americans" That is WRONG. The wars are OVER. The land is now owned by whomever holds the deed. The natives are relegated to the reservations. Right or wrong this is how it is NOW. Get used to it. If you teach a group of idiots that they have "rights" to the "dirt" there will just be another episode of the majority proving them wrong, and more than likely having to do it with violence, once the idiots get violent trying to claim their unfounded "rights".
schools should not teach classes in spanish.kids should not have to listen to that.and budgets are tight public schools do not have the money to waste on such classes. do these kids if they deserve to be here need to learn english ,yes , but let these pro immigrant morons figure out how to set up schools to teach them not public funding. do you people realize how much it cost to send a kid to school each year. things the school used to provide are gone teacher budgets to set rooms up are a thing of the past they need to ask for basics like paper pencils,glue tissues,hand soap,paper towels,construction paper,craft items,note books,snacks,many of these items were at one time provided for whats next 1st grade study books is each childs mother and father going to have buy books too. and you idiots want to waste money on teaching spanish in public schools.
everyone should learn spanish and spanish history. i would rather send my child with paper towels, glue, etc. in order to learn spanish and the all important information contained in spanish history. viva la common sense.
"Ask Gustavo Arellano and a Mexican when he / she plans to end their occupation of El Norte?"
Don't you wish you had some common sense. And some education. And just a little bit of class? So you are posting under how many names today? Must not have anything else to do. No job? meth lab was shut down?
Would someone please explain to me how we will decrease unemployment by granting amnesty to some or most of the 12,000,000 people who are occupying the United States by illegal means?
You must mean all the identity thieves, illegal border crossers, rapists, child molesters, car thieves and the rest too, eh?
All of us brown skin Mexicans presently occupying "El Norte", need to return to Mexico and take over the country from the pale skin descendants of the colonial masters. Kick out all the white skin occupiers of Mexico, our tue homeleand, with the help of Gustavo Arellano who will renounce his stay in "El Norte". He will be our new presidente in Mexico. Will you join us and Gustavo Arellano?
Ignorant. Simplistic. Unoriginal. Devoid of irony. Not at all entertaining. Asinine. Utterly devoid of any meaningful content. But a nice try.
You'll have to excuse the Arizona wannabee communist commissar mikefrombisbee. He looks up these foreign words in his old copy of the little black book of communism and it makes him feel like he's superior.
Your idea of culture is Aryan pure - the Herrenvolk kultur. That harebrained idea died in the bunker with the suicide of a very bad artist and even worse general.
It is true my friend from La Raza. We mexicans must return to Mexico and kick out all the light skinned descendants of the colonial masters. We must take back our country before it is too late. Are you with us you ignorant mikefrombisbee?
A bullshit screed from a person with a bullshit name. That's what you pull out of your pimply ass when you have nothing more valid to offer. Not even amusing. Just pathetically transparent.
Gee he doesn't like mass murders. You do? So you have no problem with Stalin, hitler, or Mao poster on the wall?
Gee, he has a superficial understanding of history. Gee, he couldn't find a single instance in which the MAS teachers violated the state law, gee, the auditors couldn't find fault with MAS, gee, you didn't really stay on topic, did you?
Really? My neighbor taught school in the south in the 60s. The textbooks refered to the civil war as the war of northern aggression. Are you going to tell me its ok to bring that book into class? I didn't think so.
And the environment from which that textbook came was such that specific minority groups were demeaned, marginalized. physically intimidated and denied access to the American dream. There are many in this country who still hate and fear those who are different. For many Americans those conditions of inequality still exist. Those are inconvenient facts that Huppenthal and Horne glossed over. They don't want students to read about racism in modern American history because it doesn't agree with Tory mythology. I have no problem with any ideas being discussed in classrooms. Neither do MAS teachers. Where you and some of the others are missing the point is that Hispanics and other people of color were indeed denied full economic, political and social benefits until very recent times in this state. I was a student at a school (Pueblo High School in Tucson) where a teacher, Dr. Henry Oyama (a man of Asian ancestry who grew up in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood) had to sue in order to marry a woman outside his "race." Should we ignore that such things happened? Or that kids on the west side of Tucson had the best auto shops in school (but not the best math and science programs) because that's what Mexicans learned to do? Tom Horne wouldn't have been allowed into certain hotels and restaurants in Arizona because he was a Jew. This was reality. The Civil War being called the war of Northern Aggression in a history book is far cry from telling the truth about conditions in America for people of color.
Please provide one specific instance of a student from a MAS class espousing hatred of Anglos. Please provide one documented instance of a MAS teacher advocating the overthrow of the United States government.
What idiocy. You would have been the ideal communist commissar. I'm not even going to argue the obvious facts that you have omitted and willfully ignore about the MAS classes. You don't even believe what your writing, but that isn't why you write it, is it shithead?
This is apparently your only source for 'news' so it does not surprise me that someone would have to do the search for you.
Your'e full of shit. The MAS classes were effectively exposed as having an anti-American, in fact, racist poltical agenda towards the anglo population. No amount of your high-minded posing can change that fact.
When you can't offer an effective response, tap dance...and talk shit. I am waiting for a response. When someone makes an assertion they should be able to back it up. Otherwise it is merely verbal flatulence. Can you back it up or are you just another shit talker?
Hardly. But nice try. Maybe you'll do better with time. Again, do you have specifics? Or do you just want to talk shit?
Why is this so hard to understand? You're not allowed to teach kids hate. It doesn't matter is its teaching Jews to hate Blacks, Chinese to hate Japanese, Navajo to hate Hopi, Sihk to hate Muslim, or even Mexican-american to have Caucasian. Some one tell me why its not racist to teach hate?
please explain? it appears you have a future as an arizona politician... say anthing without support, facts, or any iota of proof.
Please tell us which MAS teacher taught students to hate? When and where did that happen? Please be specific. It will be very helpful to Mr. Hupenthal to have that information because at present, he has nothing specific to offer and the attorney for the students is going to be asking him the same question. I'm sure you can be the hero, providing that information.
He can't provide it moron, because those subversive teachers identities are protected by the school system that fears a lawsuit from morons like you. You could if you cared to, go and see them teaching their subversive Mecha crap right on U-tube posted there by people that care about what's going on in your state, unlike you.
There should be a day set aside to recognize bigots and red neck folks whereby the entire nation reads who these idiots are, where they live and how their neighbors feel about living near them. The list should be publicized throughout the country with a national e-mail address available so these insensitive, bigoted people could be insulted publically for their lack of humility and inability to care for others. Insults should be straight forward and sting these social dropouts .
Wm. Gerardino
I would rather live next to a registered sex offender then a family of illegals that come and demand rights they have no right to ask for. that demand food assit medical insur. even though the household income level would deny others but thier money is hidden.
I'll bet some of them can spell better than you. And express their thoughts more clearly. And work harder. If you want to read a book that mirrors your pathology, pick up a copy of Mein Kampf. Or borrow it from one of your nativist friends.
And while he's reading that you could send him your copy of the little communist black book of revolutionary tactics, or he could borrow it from one of your anti-American buddies.
News Alert: Since when is the mass exodus of the citizens of one country and to illegally another country considered "undocumented migrants" instead of occupation of the country. When the Hitler invaded Poland, I don't beleive they called the Germans "undocumented migrants". Do you?
You are indeed a foolish goober, as ignorant in the Spanish language as you are lacking in knowledge of history and logic. It's "Jesu christo", not Jesus Christo. Jesus is a common name in the culture of Spanish-speaking countries.
By the way, the Germans invaded Poland with armies, bombed cities from the air and later rounded up Jews, intellectuals and other educated Poles and murdered them. That behavior which you have cited came from YOUR side of the political spectrum. From nativists and other sordid dregs of the far-right sewer pond. It is YOUR actions and words which best model the Nazis, with ypur racial xenophobia, distortion of history, chest-thumping nationalism, demonizing of all Mexicans and threats of violence. I'll bet you are very sorry WWII turned out the way it did...
The Soviet communists,(your heros), and not the Germans, murdered the educated Poles including twelve thousand of the Polish officer staff, but here you are still lying about what has already been historically corrected and still spouting off the murderous communist line. As for Poland, and the communists, millions of poor, ethnic German farmers were killed and driven off land in Poland that they had lived on for hundreds of years, you clueless moron.
Now Trending
-
Police Say Jeremy Shelton Came to Arizona For Daughter's High School Graduation, Got Busted With Meth and Fake ID
-
Lando Voyles, Pinal County Attorney, Says Fired Prosecutors Were Never Suspected of Crimes; Earlier Statement May Have Left "Mistaken Impression"
-
FedEx Will Not Be Delivering 1,621 Pounds of Weed On Time
Browse Voice Nation
-
Voice Places
Find everything you're looking for in your city
-
Happy Hour App
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
-
Daily Deals
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
-
Best Of...
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city
Join
Log In
- Profile
- Newsletters
- Mobile
- Logout
