Arizona legislature bans ethnic studies programs in public schools
I assume that Arizona’s new ban on teaching so-called ‘ethnic studies’ in public schools will include a ban on teaching European history given the predominance of white ethnicity in European heritage. Perhaps that will dribble over into American history classes as well, given the many ‘ethnic’ aspects to our own history, from Indian Wars to slavery to the fact that we very nearly voted German in as our official language.
What’s that you say? This ban will only cover ‘ethnic studies’ which focus on brown-skinned people? But isn’t that the educational equivalent of racial profiling?
Oh that’s right. Arizona has fully embraced racial profiling, so why not go the full Monty and get rid of all that pesky minority talk in the schools as well? It’s not as though there’s all that many dark skinned people in the Sun State after all. And we have plenty of crazy politicians here to help us along the way. (Though, to be fair to Arizona, plenty of Americans suffer from this irrational fear of immigration…)
According to Yahoo! News:
The new law forbids Arizona schools from using any curriculum that promotes “the overthrow of the United States government” or “resentment toward a race or class of people.” It also disallows any curriculum that’s “designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” or that seeks to “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
Arizona’s superintendent for public instruction, Tom Horne, has saidhe’s backing the measure because ethnic-studies programs encourage “ethnic chauvinism”; he’s also suggested that such programs could breed secessionist sentiment among Hispanic students.
That’s right, teaching about ethnic heritage will breed ‘secessionist sentiment among Hispanic students’ even faster, apparently, than legislating overtly racist immigration laws and even more overtly racist education mandates.
This is one of the reasons I advocate local autonomy and competitive federalism (and, more recently, progressive competitive federalism!). It’s bad when a state can shove this sort of nonsense down the throats of local communities, and the more centralized government gets, the more easily we run this sort of risk. You might think it’s impossible the federal government would ever stoop to the levels Arizona has lately, but why? The federal government bombed the hell out of a country that never attacked us only seven years ago. What’s to stop them – should they ever take over our public schools – from mandating similarly outrageous things? Instead of limiting that reach to Arizona, however, the fallout would be country-wide.
What’s to stop some crazy right-wing government from shoving this – or creationism, or any other disastrous policy down our throats should public education fall into the hands of the federal government?
Autonomy is not always good and local governments can be the most tyrannical around – but at least in a decentralized power structure the damage is contained more easily. It doesn’t spread so far or so fast.
In the mean time we can just watch Arizona devolve into a crazy right-wing paradise – and use it as a cautionary tale about power and overreach. Unless you’re too dark skinned – then you should probably start thinking about greener pastures. When all these illegal immigrants and the billions of dollars they contribute to Arizona’s economy are gone, then everything will be…well it will be different, let’s put it that way.
(Image via Daylife)
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Seriously, I don’t mean to besmirch your state of residence, but at what point do you start thinking, “California is nice this time of year…”
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Mr. Kain,
I am old enough to remember when the shoe was on the other foot, when it was the law of the land was for schools to “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals”, i.e. white supremacy.
You under estimate the people. All Arizona has to do is have an election and vote the Governor out. OR better yet, stage statewide protest and strikes of its minority workers, Hispanics and blacks together to remind the local government who truly has the power.
You worry about this action being considerably worst if Government was to be centralize? Don’t be, have faith in the American people. When we first started this experiment of Freedom we fought and won against the most powerful government of its time. The British.
Yeah, I’m not concerned about the power of Government, I’m scared of Apathy. Right now, we seem to have an abundance of that!
“When all these illegal immigrants and the billions of dollars they contribute to Arizona’s economy are gone”..now that is a bunch of BS. You’re justifying 100s of dead Americans for near-slave and abused labor practices.
And your title is a lie too. They’re banning one sided ethnic studies, but promoting social studies of all cultures. It means a student cannot got through grade school only taking Hispanic studies. How many Hispanics in Arizona know where Sweden is? Most K12 students probably would not think highly of Sweden. Ignorance breeds separatism and resentment, which is what the law is preventing. Is this the best law to fix the issue? Probably not, but it shows failures at the local level.
“These programs breed ethnic chauvanism.” You know unlike laws that ban minority history from being taught and present white history as the only valid narrative.
[...] Arizona outlaws teaching of ‘ethnic studies’ (trueslant.com) [...]
‘The new law forbids Arizona schools from using any curriculum that promotes “the overthrow of the United States government” or “resentment toward a race or class of people.” It also disallows any curriculum that’s “designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” or that seeks to “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”’
Mr. Kain, do you support curricula that is “designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” when that ethnic group is Euro-Americans? Do you support classes that “advocate ethnic solidarity” for white Americans “instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals,” or should whites be singled out and denied such classes?
Also, Mr. Kain, you are one of the very few progressives I’ve read who advocate decentralism and federalism. In that, at least, we are agreed. What is your take on Phillip Blond’s Red Toryism? I should think it a political philosophy that might attract both left-federalists (small thought their number may be) such as yourself, along with radical reactionary localists such as myself.
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2010/jun/01/00006/
[...] public school curriculum to be about as absurd as Arizona’s immigration reforms (not to mention that state’s education innovations). These are exactly the sort of reforms that push me toward the school-choice camp. After all, if [...]