25 January, 2012

Tucson Mexican American Studies Banned

 It is now 2012 and people are still afraid of books and certain subjects in school. The Tucson Arizona school district is banning Mexican American studies and banning certain books that have to do with the curriculum in the course. These books wont even be offered in the school library for students to read on their own. Are people afraid of loosing their whiteness or something. The ability to understand another culture is how we gain respect for and from others. Arizona is a border state and should be a lot more sympathetic to the diversity of cultures it has. Ignoring it is only going to break up its community. Here is a link to one article.Tucson Mexican American Studies Banned. We also went over the list of banned books in my Contemporary American Literature class. Go read history from another perspective. I'm finishing up a book called George Washington Gomez by Americo Paredes. It is about the transition that border families had to go through shortly after Mexico lost its North American lands. Mexican families had their lands taken away and were forced to move to a near by state across the border, a place that was foreign to them because culture is different form state to state, town to town, family to family.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is unfortunate. Hope people have a voice over there. I don't see the point of banning the studies. Why don't they just give parents the option to opt thier kids out of those studies. Some people want to learn about other cultures let them do it. I beleive in free will. Freedom to learn what ever you want. I hope it doesn't spread to other states.

Jeffrey Root said...

That's the thing. It wasn't a required course. It was an elective. Now the students don't even have a choice to take it anymore.