Arizona Bans Mexican American Studies

By guest blogger C. Wright

On January 1^st, 2012, Arizona Superintendent John Huppenthal banned the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican American Studies program arguing that the program violated state law because it flamed anti-white sentiments and was communistic. The state law in question is relatively new (2010) and was specifically designed to ban this Mexican American Studies program. Huppenthal argues that instead of teaching about oppression emotionally, schools should teach about oppression objectively.

In order to avoid millions of dollars in state cuts, TUSD eradicated the program (which, for the past 13 years, produced immense success for students in areas such as graduation rates, and standardized test success rates), and “banned” a list of books focused on critical pedagogy, critical race theory, and Chicana/o history.

My interests regard the superintendent’s rhetoric of white-victimhood in order to frame critical race theory and critical pedagogy as oppressive. Huppenthal’s recent media campaign intended to defend the decision is fertile ground for uncovering the way individuals use strategic rhetorics of whiteness to maintain supremacy. Here are three links to investigate in regards to this idea:

1. This link leads to a January 18^th, 2012 episode of Democracy Now! Where Superintendent Huppenthal debates the ban with Richard Rodriguez, attorney for the TUSD MAS students and teachers. http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/18/debating_tucson_school_districts_book_ban

2. This link leads to an analysis by Tim Wise, renowned antiracist essayist, author, and educator, who relays some frank and succinct reactions.

http://www.timwise.org/2011/12/telling-white-lies-patriotic-correctness-and-the-war-on-ethnic-studies/

3. Here is a link to the save ethnic studies website for activists interested in learning more: http://saveethnicstudies.org/