I watched this CNN interview and exchange last night between Tom Horne, Arizone Superintendent of Public Instruction and Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, professor and social critic. The issue was Arizona’s new ban on ethnic studies. Apparently, Arizona’s public school system was worried about non-white children being taught their history. According to Mr. Horne, as the non-white children began gaining “knowledge of self”; they began to exhibit behaviors and gravitate toward perspectives that were threatening to the power structure. During the interview he showed a picture of high school students from Arizona in fatigues and disciplined formation to underscore his point. He also shared that one of the La Raza classes was leading Chicano high school students in reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire – one of the 45 books that changed my life. Instead of the “banking concept” of education where students are engaged as empty vessels that need to be poured into; Freire champions a problem-posing concept of education as an instrument of liberation. Consider this quote about problem-posing education from Freire’s book:
Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge. Because they apprehend the challenge as interrelated to other problems within a total context, not as a theoretical question, the resulting comprehension tends to be increasingly critical and thus constantly less alienated….Education as the practice of freedom – as opposed to education as the practice of domination – denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the world; it also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from people. – (page 81)
The Arizona Public School System, like the Texas Education Board before it, decided that it needed to exert it’s authority, ban the teaching of history from a non-White perspective and force students back into the “main” path of educational social conditioning complete with its emphasis on the individuality of a person. (One of the features of Western doctrine rightly outlined in Light from Ancient Africa by Dr. Naim Akbar.)
However, we must fight the temptation to believe that the question of educational authority is a unique problem of the West or the Deep South. My experiences with the Baltimore City Public School System and analysis of other majority African American cities in the North; suggests that this is a systemic problem across the board of the American Public School System. Then, it’s no wonder that our major urban cities are hampered on every side with social challenges. Many would suggest that our current public school systems are designed to maintain the status quo, not inspire the minds of youth to challenge it.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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I watched this on tv last night and I could not help but shake my head. I am not a history buff, but wasn't this country founded on oppression. Immigrants left Europe due to get away from religious oppression only to turn around and oppressed the natives, Blacks from African and women. The gentleman speaking spoke as if Ethnic Studies is not apart of US History hence the name African-AMERICAN, Hispanic-AMERICAN, Native-AMERICAN History. This whole situation makes me scared because if they will pass one law which is unconstitutional and allows racial discrimination they will pass even more that will discriminate against more people.
I was informed at a meeting with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce a few weeks ago, that there are actually 45 million Hispanics (to include all Spanish groups) in America today.Tom Horne and the majority culture will have to come to grips with the concept of comeuppance? Latinos and Chicanos in California informed me years ago that they would be taking their portion of the United States back. "Whatsoever a man sows, he shall also reap!" America is paying for its historical egregious sins against numerous ethnic people, now Mexicans!
"Study to show thyself approved!!" As long as it's Italian, Jewish, Greek, English, Irish….(do you see a theme here?) it's ok to learn about culture. People of color are out of bounds for wanting to know the true history of this nation. And maybe it's me, but when did being gay or lesbian ( a sexual orientation), become the same as the race and heritage you were born into. By blood. This is another issue that the largely white gay lobby has forced into the american lexicon.
I agree about the racism that is showing itself in the history books and the our educational system. But at your last statement about orientation. As a black, heterosexual, U.S. citizen. I don't remember picking any of those groups to be born into and I don't think anyone outside of my identity groups got to pick there's either.
@ Charles J,
I'm also a black, hetero, born and bred in Baltimore, U.S. citizen. From the womb I'm black, when I walk into a room I'm black. I don't have to say a word. When an Hispanic walks into a room, you see that he is Hispanic. Don't get me wrong Charles J., everyone likes what they like. But I have a problem comparing ethnicity to sexual oriantation. If you are a gay black person, you were black before you were gay. Same thing as a Hispanic person, born and bred of their heritage. Sexual desires or preferences isn't your ethnicity. It's what turns you on. And believe it or not, I'm not for the most part, anti-gay. I have a big, big ,big (did I say big?) problem of gayness equating to black as far as discrimination is concerned. If a person likes to engage in same-sex sexual activity, that's one thing, but to equate that with being the same as being a person of color, I will never equate the two.
Hey C.S.,
As you can see, I did make some slight edits to your comment (only 1 sentence), but I wanted to make sure that the meat of your message was preserved. Thanks for commenting!
And it's interesting that you and Charles are having this chat. I will be posting a Book Review this week related to this very issue. Great timing!
@Common Sense
I can see your point as I used to share it. I felt that one could not tell a sexual orientation by looking at someone as soon as they walked in the room so how can you compare. With time I still understand that race and gender are the first things someone will see when the see me, but I am still a man, im still hetero, Im still a US citizen, I am still young etc etc. I am never one without the other. I can't play the oppression Olympics as to say well race oppression is worse than gender oppression or sexual orientation oppression. Im still in agreement with you as they are different but my point is oppression is oppression period and I cannot sit with myself and be comfortable if as a Black person, a person who comes from an oppressed group because of race then knowingly assist in the oppression of another group.
@Heber
What's the name of the book?
@Charles J,
We agree that any form of oppression is wrong. Where we disagree is that a sexual desire, inclination or practice is equal to the race, creed or color you were born into. Whatever one does behind closed doors is just that…behind closed doors. Straight people never say, "I'm here, I'm straight, get over it". If a person is gay, that's their private life. I have no need to know that. I love Sanford and Son, The Flintstones, The Boondocks, All In The Family, Run-DMC, Treme, hot sauce, Artscape, Petey Green etc., etc. That is a choice. I wasn't born into that. Those are things I like. But first and foremost, I'm a black person. Just as you can't compare the five-o just stopping the Hispanics in Arizona with being gay. You can hide or use discretion on being gay, you can't hide being black or brown or asian or indian.
@Common Sense. I see that we agree on the larger point about not oppressing others.There are some people who have a problem with us being born Black too, as long as they are not oppressing us via taking away our right to any goods, services or opportunities as a people should be good.
We do have a slight disagreement about sexual orientation being private life or a choice and something to be hidden. I can walk down the street with any woman I want to and I never have to worry about being taunted or physically harmed. I've never heard anyone tell me stop holding hands as it is my "private life" or I am showcasing my "sexual desire" in public. My point is that we should extend the same rights to all people no matter whether we agree with who they are or not. There are still White racist who disagree with our "lifestyles" as Black men but they are wrong for trying to deny us any rights and so are we if we try to deny anyone else their rights.
Common Sense. I am enjoying our dialogue I hope to have more with you soon.
@ Charles J,
I hope to dialog with you also. An interesting topic. The more minds who weigh in, the better for the whole collective.
Interesting that at the end Horne had to admit that the "racially divided" classes he is supposedly against are open to all students.
Also, totally mind-blowing to me that someone who knows one line from one speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and who honestly believes that the guiding principle of U.S. education should be "not teaching 'downer' history," gets to be Superintendent of Public Instruction.
CommonSense, I disagree with you, in that I think that you're conflating sexual orientation, which is an aspect of identity, and what you refer to as "one does behind closed doors." Those might be related things, but might not be–my identity might be straight or it might be gay but I might not be sexually active at all, for example.
Being able to "pass" as a more acceptable identity is just one more aspect of oppression–and there have indeed been people who have "passed" as being white because of a lighter skin tone. That doesn't mean there isn't racial oppression being directed against them, just that they've been able to fool a racially oppressive structure.
On the flip side, it's true that my white or Euro-American identity is partially something I'm given at birth–my skin privilege. But it's also partially something that is created over time. My actions, my choices, the cumulative effects of my skin privilege–and, one would hope, the dawning awareness of that privilege and the search for collective ways to undermine it–all create my identity. My "white" identity is both something given and something created over time.
For an interesting series of conversations about race and sexuality, check outhttp://truthinprogress.com/about/
"Equating Sexual Orientation with 'Sex Life,'" a piece by Glen Greenwald:http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/20-7
"Sexual orientation is not about one's "sex life," at least not primarily, but instead is a key part of one's identity. Along with a whole variety of other factors (race, socioeconomic background, religion, gender, geographic origin, ethnic background), it shapes one's experiences, perceptions, and relationship to the world. As is true for all of those other attributes, there is vast heterogeniety within one's sexual orientation; there's as much diversity among gay people as there is among, say, Christians or Latinos or women or heterosexuals. But there's no doubt that it is a very substantial factor in one's life experiences and understanding of the world. "