Ethnic Pride Banned?

   It would seem that Arizona has once again become a hotbed for racial issues. Not even two years ago, the state passed a law, SB 1070, that many felt would encourage racial profiling towards Latino-Americans in an effort to cut down on illegal immigration. This year, the Arizona state legislature voted in a 4-1 majority to terminate the Arizona school district's Ethnic Studies program for Mexican-Americans. They also sought to ban various books from their school, many of them teaching latino-centric values and taught to rethink the euro-centric teachings of regular classes. Others, like Shakespeare's "The Tempest", were banned simply because they had a central theme of race and oppression.
   Arizona has a long history of racially charged laws, especially towards Mexican-Americans. During the 1950's Arizona was one of the few states to segregate Mexican-Americans into different schools separate from the whites.(Goddard 2005) The passing of this new law isn't much of a surprise given the state's racial history but still raises questions about why the state finds it necessary to ban these books and abolish these classes. The law, HB 2281, says that it "bans schools from teaching classes that are designed for students of a particular ethnic group, promote resentment or advocate ethnic solidarity over treating pupils as individuals." However, are classes that teach ethnic solidarity really so bad? Many Mexican-American live in cities where their national heritage is ignored or not treated with the same amount of respect as white and european based cultures. In many cases these classes are the only ones in which these children learn about their past from a Latino perspective.
   It is unfortunate to see the Arizona school board taking away one of the few classes in which Mexican-Americans can be proud and have some sense of togetherness. Once again, it seems, the people who consider themselves 'normal' feel that they have a right to dictate on how things should be. 




Goddard, Terry. (2005) The promise of Brown v. Board of education. Retrieved from: http://www.azag.gov/civil_rights/Brown%20v%20Board%20Monograph.pdf
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/12/nation/la-na-ethnic-studies-20100512