TUSD’s ethnic-studies programs are in serious trouble. It doesn’t matter that they seem to work—that students’ attendance and test scores improve, and they do better in college.
Superintendent of Public Instruction-elect John Huppenthal, whose hatred of ethnic studies was one of his campaign platforms, says it must be stopped, because it teaches Hispanic kids—let’s be honest here, Huppenthal only cares about raza studies, not all ethnic studies—to hate white people and indulge in ethnic chauvinism.
Except that studying, among other things, the oppression of Hispanics in this country isn’t teaching hatred. It’s teaching history. And giving students a reason to be proud of themselves and their culture isn’t chauvinism.
But, you know, if ethnic studies ventures into some ethnic chauvinism now and then, I say, so much the better.
I’m Jewish. We Jews have suffered horrific anti-Semitism over the centuries, but right now in the United States, we’re a privileged minority. I can honestly say that being Jewish has not shut a single door for me, so I have no complaints. That said, I can be chauvinistic as hell.
When I was young, my chauvinism was a valuable asset. Excessive pride in being Jewish made me feel less like the odd kid out when everyone talked about Christmas. And when someone made an anti-Semitic comment, I told myself, “It’s great to be a Jew! Look at what we’ve accomplished, even when the world hated us!”
Now I’m a grown man, so this stuff shouldn’t matter anymore. But a few months ago, I watched a documentary about Hank Greenberg, the great Jewish baseball player in the 1930s and 1940s. I’m not a sports fan, so this isn’t my normal fare. But a Jewish home run king? How great is that? I was moved to tears more than once.
Hispanics are not a privileged minority, not by a long shot. Sure, Hispanic kids can find prominent role models, but the larger society brands Hispanics as failures and treats them as second-class citizens. That can be tough on a young person’s emerging self-esteem. Life can grind the enthusiasm out of kids in a thousand ways—death of hope by a thousand cuts. After awhile, it can feel like it’s just not worth all the effort to excel in school and think about going to college.
So what could be better than a school program designed to teach, among other things, about the ways this country has robbed Hispanics of the chance to advance professionally and economically, while at the same time giving students a thousand reasons to be proud of who they are and what they can accomplish?
There’s a scene I love in the film Stand and Deliver, about a math teacher at a Los Angeles high school with mainly Hispanic students who transformed his classes of “losers” into math whizzes. It’s when he was telling his students what great mathematicians the Mayans were, and how they invented the zero while the Greeks and Romans didn’t have a clue. He looked at his students and said, “You have math in your blood.”
From my 30 years of teaching high school and my experience growing up Jewish, I think I know what was going on inside those students when they heard that: They were overwhelmed with a sense of joy and relief. During that shining moment, those kids knew they could be anything they wanted to be. Math is in their blood!
If I were a raza-studies teacher, I would probably tell my students, “You know the best way to get even with the people who want to keep you down? Succeed! Work your ass off; get good grades; ace your SATs; then go to college, and earn a degree. Take that degree, and flash it in the face of anyone who said you wouldn’t make it!”
Huppenthal might call that teaching hatred and chauvinism. I call it motivation.
If you want to see chauvinism in its purest form, look at people like Huppenthal—white European Americans who believe they transcend ethnicity. They see themselves as the pinnacle of civilization, blamed for nothing and given credit for everything that’s wonderful in the world. It’s ethnic chauvinism on steroids. No wonder they hate a program like raza studies. It challenges their sense of innate superiority by empowering others to take pride in themselves.
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2010.
Um, is there something wrong with this opinion piece? Particularly in that it comes off to at least to this reader as a mostly childish self-affirmation to start and ends with a slightly retarded ‘well, same too you buddy!’ conclusion.
I’d like to point out a couple of interesting attributes in the end of this column. Let’s start with the classic twisting of words leading in to that last paragraph; “Huppenthal might call that teaching hatred and chauvinism. I call it motivation.” an example of classic (and amateur) contrary re-labeling of the concept. Make what offends you into something of your own. Certainly a powerful tool for younger minds with not enough ethical compass to guide them in modern American society yet the intended readers of the Tucson Weekly will easily ignore a single sentence paragraph with an obvious ‘shock value’ statement and check the context it is made in.
Yet this is where the problem lies.
In immediate context, the author is discussing his point with a movie reference as if that was credible justification for his opinion. Following the “I call it motivation.” line the author immediately turns to generalizations much the same as his chosen opponents do. Using “people like”, “they see themselves”, “everything wonderful in the world”, and finally “they hate” lumps the author’s chosen opponent – white European Americans who believe they transcend ethnicity – into a group that supports Huppenthal and hates raza studies without thinking these things through. If you’re preaching or paying attention to any egalitarian concepts (like ethnic or religious tolerance) you would not force other citizens into a group. That is diametrically opposed to civil rights.
Policy in these comments forbids personal attacks, so these questions are directed at the editorial staff: was this opinion piece actually considered good enough to print? Is the author actually an educator? Is the author making a point or just continuing a cycle of ‘I’m rubber and you’re glue’ rants that perpetuate ethical stagnation?
Posted by me, Aaron Erkin – a voter against ethic studies and against Horne and Huppenthal. There would be a sentence here as to why, but then I’d be writing a guest opinion for the Tucson Weekly myself.
This article is silly. Huppenthal noted that TUSD ethnic studies appeared to be teaching a false, one-sided history. They were teaching their students that Benjamin Franklin was a racist. In fact, Benjamin Franklin was President of the Pennsylvania abolutionist society influencing Pennsylvania to be the first state to ban the slave trade, Franklin freed his own slaves and gave them positions of responsibility in his companies and Franklin paid out of his own pocket to create the first african american schools in this country. Franklin was the most influential of the founding fathers in creating the first amendment to the constitution. Franklin was a co-author of the declaration of independence. All this and all they were teaching these students was that Franklin was a racist. That amounts to poisoning students minds.