Here is the opinion in Gonzales v. Douglas (D. Ariz.):
NYTs coverage here.
Prior posts here.
Tucson Unified School District
Ninth Circuit Materials in Arce v. Huppenthal (Arizona’s Ethnic Studies Ban)
Here are the briefs:
Brief for Amici Curiae 48 Public School Teachers
Brief of Amicus Curiae Latina and Latino Critical Legal Theory, Inc.
Brief of Authors Rodolfo Acuña, Bill Bigelow, Richard Delgado, and Jean Stefancic as Amici Curiae
Brief of Chief Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy
Brief of Freedom to Read Foundation
Brief of the National Education Association and Arizona Education Association as Amici Curiae
Brief Amicus Curiae of Pacific Legal Foundation in Support of Neither Party
Oral argument video here.
News coverage here.
Interview with Dr. Acuna, Author of Book Banned by TUSD
Here.
An except:
Dr. Rodolfo Acuña – author, educator, historian and social activist – has been on the front lines in the battle over Arizona’s banning of books on Chicano history and the shutting down of Mexican-American Studies programs in the state’s public schools. The banned books include his landmark work, Occupied America, A History of Chicanos.
Often referred to as the father of Chicano Studies, Dr. Acuña co-founded the Chicano and Chicana Studies Department at the California State University at Northridge in 1969. He has taught for over 40 years at California State University, Northridge, and has become the standard-bearer in Chicano Studies classes throughout the United States.
Occupied America was first published in 1972 and is currently in its seventh edition, an exhaustive work that documents the history of Chicanos. He has also authored The Story of Mexican-American Community Under Siege, A Chronicle of Chicanos East of the Los Angeles River, 1945 – 1975, and most recently The Making of Chicano Studies in the Trenches of Academia.
Much of what Dr. Acuña has done in his life is now under assault in Arizona where right-wing officials have clamped down on classes teaching public school students about the history of white oppression directed against Native Americans and Chicanos. Claiming that this teaching of history stirs anti-white resentments, the state officials forced the banning of certain books and termination of the classes.
Salon: Update in TUSD Book Banning Debacle
Here.
These excerpts suggest that there isn’t any real backtracking, just excuses.
In a district of more than 60,000 students, 61 percent of whom come from Mexican-American families, library copies of the targeted seven books appear to be sparse. There are two district-wide copies available of “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Brazilian educator Paolo Freire, which had been singled out by state superintendent Huppenthal. The district’s online catalog showed only one copy of the Critical Race Theory textbook. Tucson High School does not have one of the 16 copies available in the district of the textbook “Rethinking Columbus: The Next Five Years,” according to the catalog.
The TUSD administration also denied “The Tempest” had been banned. According to the statement, “Teachers may continue to use materials in their classrooms as appropriate for the course curriculum. ‘The Tempest” and other books approved for curriculum are still viable options for instructors.”
However, in a recorded meeting with his administrators last Wednesday, Tucson High School teacher Curtis Acosta was admonished not to teach the classic play in his literature class using the “nexus of race, class and oppression” or “issues of critical race theory.”
“What is very clear is that ’The Tempest’ is problematic for our administrators due to the content of the play and the pedagogical choices I have made,” Acosta said in an interview. “In other words, Shakespeare wrote a play that is clearly about colonization of the new world and there are strong themes of race, colonization, oppression, class and power that permeate the play, along with themes of love and redemption.
“At the end of the meeting it became clear to all of us that I need to avoid such literature and it was directly stated. Due to the madness of this situation and our fragile positions as instructors who will be frequently observed for compliance, and be asked to produce examples of student work as proof of our compliance, I cannot disagree with their advice. Now we are in the position of having to rule out ’The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,’ ‘The Great Gatsby,’ etc. for the exact same reasons.”
Lorenzo Lopez said that when his daughter, Korina, a plaintiff in the federal court case, heard the texts had been taken to a storage facility, she asked him, “Isn’t that the book graveyard where they send all the old books, never to be seen again?” Lopez said he replied, “Yes, it is.”
Full List of Banned Books and Other Details re: TUSD
Tucson Schools Ban Shakespeare and “Rethinking Columbus”
Here are the details from Salon.
Our prior post on Arizona’s war on TUSD’s ethnic studies programs is here.
Awful News from Tucson
Here is the news coverage of how an ALJ declared TUSD’s ethnic studies program to be in violation of state law for “promot[ing] the overthrow of the United States government” and “promo[ing] resentment toward a race or class of people,” which the ALJ here found to be “white people.”
The ALJ opinion is here:
TUSD-loses-ethnic-studies-appeal
H/T Al Brophy.
Salon on Arizona’s Prohibition on Ethnic Studies
As others (most especially Angelique EagleWoman) have asked, does this affect the Indian law programs at U of A and ASU?
From Salon:
When did Arizona get so mean? As if what they’ve done already isn’t bad enough, Gov. Jan Brewer and the state legislature have just passed a lawforbidding state public schools from teaching ethnic studies courses. Or, as they put it in the new legislation, students “should be taught to treat and value each other as individuals and not be taught to resent or hate other races or classes of people.” A promising start there. I’m glad we’re finally rooting out the Mexican Klan meetings in middle schools.
Apparently, state education chief Tom Horne (unsurprisingly, a current candidate for attorney general), is behind this, and he’s especially incensed about one textbook in particular. “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos,” by Rodolfo Acuña, has really gotten his goat. “To begin with, the title of the book implies to the kids that they live in occupied America, or occupied Mexico,” Horne told the Los Angeles Times. You have to love a guy whose argument literally seems to be that we should judge the book by its cover.
So the complaint is that ethnic studies in general, and Chicano studies in particular, teach hate. In a moment of truly dazzling irony, Horne said, “It’s just like the old South, and it’s long past time that we prohibited it.”
The logic seems to be that any time brown folks get together in groups to talk about their identity and history, they must be plotting against white people. Maybe something here sounds like the old South, but I don’t think it’s the students and teachers.
Turtle Talk 