The stupidity in AZ is getting worse

[Zer0]

These knobs are on a mission. Now they're targeting free speech.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100512/ap_ ... ic_studies

Arizona gov. signs bill targeting ethnic studies
By JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press Writer Jonathan J. Cooper, Associated Press Writer
Wed May 12, 6:23 am ET

PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has signed a bill targeting a school district's ethnic studies program, hours after a report by United Nations human rights experts condemned the measure.

State schools chief Tom Horne, who has pushed the bill for years, said he believes the Tucson school district's Mexican-American studies program teaches Latino students that they are oppressed by white people.

Public schools should not be encouraging students to resent a particular race, he said.

"It's just like the old South, and it's long past time that we prohibited it," Horne said.

Brewer's signature on the bill Tuesday comes less than a month after she signed the nation's toughest crackdown on illegal immigration — a move that ignited international backlash amid charges the measure would encourage racial profiling of Hispanics. The governor has said profiling will not be tolerated.

The measure signed Tuesday prohibits classes that advocate ethnic solidarity, that are designed primarily for students of a particular race or that promote resentment toward a certain ethnic group.

The Tucson Unified School District program offers specialized courses in African-American, Mexican-American and Native-American studies that focus on history and literature and include information about the influence of a particular ethnic group.

For example, in the Mexican-American Studies program, an American history course explores the role of Hispanics in the Vietnam War, and a literature course emphasizes Latino authors.

Horne, a Republican running for attorney general, said the program promotes "ethnic chauvinism" and racial resentment toward whites while segregating students by race. He's been trying to restrict it ever since he learned that Hispanic civil rights activist Dolores Huerta told students in 2006 that "Republicans hate Latinos."

District officials said the program doesn't promote resentment, and they believe it would comply with the new law.

The measure doesn't prohibit classes that teach about the history of a particular ethnic group, as long as the course is open to all students and doesn't promote ethnic solidarity or resentment.

About 1,500 students at six high schools are enrolled in the Tucson district's program. Elementary and middle school students also are exposed to the ethnic studies curriculum. The district is 56 percent Hispanic, with nearly 31,000 Latino students.

Sean Arce, director of the district's Mexican-American Studies program, said last month that students perform better in school if they see in the curriculum people who look like them.

"It's a highly engaging program that we have, and it's unfortunate that the state Legislature would go so far as to censor these classes," he said.

Six UN human rights experts released a statement earlier Tuesday saying all people have the right to learn about their own cultural and linguistic heritage, they said.

Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman didn't directly address the UN criticism, but said Brewer supports the bill's goal.

"The governor believes ... public school 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," Senseman said.

Arce could not immediately be reached after Brewer signed the bill late Tuesday.

[WeAintFoundShit]

I like it that the best way to get the message across that minorities aren't actually under oppression is to oppress the educational rights of minorities.
And what better way to prove that republicans don't hate latinos than for a republican politician to fight long and hard to close down minority studies programs.

On one hand, yeah, no class anywhere should teach hatred or bigotry, but historical facts are another matter altogether.

We're pretty much all on the same page here, so it's not like I need to get way high up on the soapbox. There wouldn't be enough room on this particular one. We'd need a soap crate, or a soap shipping container.

[Rabbit_Fighter]

I mean, first he buys a Guzzi CRUISER of all bikes, and now this?

man, oh man . . . .

[Zer0]

Chalk another one up for fear and ignorance.

[DerGolgo]

This shit terrifies me.
One of the things I always wondered about the Nazis was how a seemingly rational country was able to descend into madness and blame a minority of its citizens for all of the country's ills.
I've spoken to a lot of the anti-illegal immigrant types, and they are full of bogus "facts" about illegal immigrants being responsible for everything from crime to traffic to environmental damage. Led on by people like Lou Dobbs and the Fox News crowd, they can cite numbers that support their case, but which are, on closer examination, exaggerated or even made up. There's no debating them, though-- their minds are made up.
The fact that a state government has gone along with this bullshit is disgusting, and goes against everything this country aspires to.
I'm sorry for getting on the soapbox WAFS avoided so neatly, but there's a rising tide of blind stupid hatred in the US, and it's a much bigger problem than anything the "illegals" have done. Anyway, thanks for letting me rant.

It can happen fucking everywhere.

[xaos]

it continues to make me sad that people (crackers, who's near ancestors were allowed to leave their homeland, and immigrate here, in pursuit of a better life) deny others (cubans, mexicans...what-have-you, etc) the right to make the decision as to where they want to live, without becoming a criminal.

[Ames]

One of the most heartbreaking experiences I had last year was trying to find scholarships for my students that didn't require a FAFSA. I had several highly intelligent students who were looking at NOT being able to go to college (at least with any assistance) DESPITE the fact they spent their entire fucking lives in this country. These mean-spirited laws are meant to insure that people can't enjoy the American Dream to the level that their children will.

Fuckers.

[WeAintFoundShit]

I told one of my Mexican friends that I wanted to dress up as "La Migra the Clown" for Burning Man, and run around saying a bunch of fucked up, comical, but ultimately racist shit, not to actually BE racist, but to push the boundaries of people's awareness, and highlight the ignorance of the current situation in Az.
My plan was to combine an INS uniform with a clown suit, and run around with an Arizona state flag as a cape.

I asked her if she wanted in on the gag, but I don't think she really got what I was getting at, and now I think she's pissed off at me.

This news is only somewhat related, but whatever, it's 4am, and I've been on the booze...

[Ames]

WAFS,
You've got to be REALLY careful with the social commentary, people don't get it and tend to swing first and ask questions later...so I've heard.

[Sisyphus]

Wait... We're shocked, shocked that everything is slanted toward whitey?

As Howard Zinn pointed out, history is written by the victors. That AZ has passed this law is not surprising, just another group hanging on desperately to hegemony.

[Zer0]

And now AZ id trickling into CA politics. We have our primary for Gov (Schwarzenneger's terming out), and the two Repubs have drawn the line: Poizner supports the AZ immigration law, and Whitman opposes it. Whitman has more $$ but this may endear Poizner to the right, and give him the primary. (but then this shit'll backfire on him in the gen election.) Primaries=apppeal to the extremes, general=appeal to the middle.

[Jaeger]

I just started a new thread on this in Politics, but it should really go here...


What to Texas and Afghanistan have in common?

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Answer: They're both monitored by un-manned spy planes.



Gorsh, I WONDER what they're looking for?

We're so totally fucked.

--Jaeger

[sun rat]

i'm just going to plug away at my schoolwork...

[Zer0]

Wll, it IS Texas--a lot like Arizona, only bigger and sometimes just as angry.

But this IS scary. Thank you, Jaeger, and extra kudos to that network for having the balls to investigate and publish. Too many news channels would have looked the other way and kept focusing on more relevant issueslike celebrity gossip.

Wishful thinking: more skeet shooting for Texans?

[Moto_Myotis]

Chalk another one up for fear and ignorance.

I actually don't think it's that. Fact is, some companies/industries rely on cheap labor, and the way to ensure that they get it is by totally marginalizing certain segments of society. If the U.S. Gov't really wanted to curb illegal immigration they would, by getting tougher on companies that hire illegal immigrants. But that's not what they do. They criminalize the shit out of being here illegally, making it tough/intimidating for illegal immigrants to send their kids to school, report crimes, get licensed to drive, etc., so people don't feel comfortable standing up for their rights without fear of deportation. This makes it really easy for companies to pay shitty wages and lower the bar on health and safety standards. So, no, I don't think it's about fear and ignorance, it's about creating an easily exploited population that supplies cheap labor.

I find it particularly offensive that the media can make illegal immigrants out to be terrorists or people who want to take away our jobs, or whatnot, and then the AZ fucks want to gut ethnic studies programs, which are some of the few public forums to provide counter views to that shit.

[sun rat]

MM, excellent assessment.

who stands to gain from an entire group of people being marginalized? those who profit from doing things illegally to them.

as always, follow the money.

[sun rat]

Apparently the creation of the ethnic studies programs in Arizona was a direct response to a lawsuit by minorities against the Tuscon school district...

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... wsuit.html

But when the Mexican-American studies program began in 1997, it was meant to appease families who had sued the district, alleging segregation and racial inequity across the school system.

The origins of the courses further complicate an issue that has divided the school system and thrust Arizona, yet again, into the national spotlight on issues of race and immigration.

Students and others who defend the program argue that their classes teach students history from a multicultural perspective, and help them analyze public services to find evidence of discrimination. They say the classes have been unfairly demonized.

.....
On Monday, Horne said he did not know the Mexican American Studies Department was key to the district's settlement, but speculated that it was only included because local courts were considered "friendly" to the plaintiffs.

there is much more to the article.

[Sonic Rob]

Chalk another one up for fear and ignorance.

I actually don't think it's that. Fact is, some companies/industries rely on cheap labor, and the way to ensure that they get it is by totally marginalizing certain segments of society. If the U.S. Gov't really wanted to curb illegal immigration they would, by getting tougher on companies that hire illegal immigrants. But that's not what they do. They criminalize the shit out of being here illegally, making it tough/intimidating for illegal immigrants to send their kids to school, report crimes, get licensed to drive, etc., so people don't feel comfortable standing up for their rights without fear of deportation. This makes it really easy for companies to pay shitty wages and lower the bar on health and safety standards. So, no, I don't think it's about fear and ignorance, it's about creating an easily exploited population that supplies cheap labor.

I find it particularly offensive that the media can make illegal immigrants out to be terrorists or people who want to take away our jobs, or whatnot, and then the AZ fucks want to gut ethnic studies programs, which are some of the few public forums to provide counter views to that shit.

+1. If the government were serious about stopping illegal immigration, we'd do something about the demand for illiegal immigrants. As it is, corporations and the wealthy are allowed to tempt desperate people into breaking the law. If the immigrants are caught and punished, there are still plenty more where they came from willing to take the risk.

[sun rat]

this just in, well, at lunch when my grandfather was watching foxnews..

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05 ... k-boycott/

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday defiantly rejected a warning by a top Arizona utilities official that the state could cut off power to Los Angeles should the city proceed with its boycott of all things Arizona.