A list of books banned by Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). (This web site has extensive coverage of the shut-down. Click around if you are interested.)
The Arizona Ethnic Studies Network, which supports the Mexican American Studies program closed by HB 2281.
Sandra Soto's article, co-authored with legal scholar Miranda Joseph, Neoliberalism and the Battle over Ethnic Studies in Arizona. The article recounts how Soto's 2010 Convocation Speech at University of Arizona College of Social and Behavioral Sciences was met with anti-Mexican racism by "injured" audience members who, like the law HB2281, would remove any mention of race or ethnicity from even the supposedly intellectually open and politically productive space of the University.
I looked at the list and I noticed one of my favorite stories on it. Bless Me, Ultima was perhaps my favorite school-asigned book (aside from Ender's Game) because it was so poignantly written and pointed out issues of both religion, family, and race through the eyes of a young child. It is actually horrifying what books are considered to be so issued. I can understand our reading, but many of the narratives on that list are beautiful and create understanding.
ReplyDeleteRight. All of these books were targeted because they were used to teach Ethnic Studies. None was targeted because it was deemed offensive, obscene, or inflammatory on its own. Ethnic Studies is the target in this case. Your experience as a reader is the kind of positive outcome that the MAS program has used in its arguments against the shut-down, but to avail.
Delete"Another person claimed that her daughter,a graduate, wept all day because of the speech." I can't.This was almost too much. I missed this post, but I was one of the people in class who stated that I understood why TUSD made their decision, but after reading these articles I agree that their decision to ban these books seems to be based on racism. Although I went to the University of Arizona for year, I can't say that while there I felt like Tucson was a particularly racist place, but that could be because I mainly hung out with other out of state people, and we didn't involve ourselves much with T-Locs as they were called. I think that the school districts blatant dismissing of these books is an attempt to ignore history. Sadly, this isn't the first time this has occurred in the history of these United States. This is important there because Tucson is majority hispanic, but this issue is important for everyone. I feel like Hispanics are sometimes looked at as the new black people, alot of people really have no shame in spewing racist comments about them in public settings. Contrary to what TUSD says, I think education would do more to unite younger people than it would to divide them.
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