I mean, who does it think it is, Texas? From FOXNews, “Arizona Legislature Passes Bill to Curb ‘Chauvanism’ in Ethnic Studies Programs”:
After making national headlines for a new law on illegal immigrants, the Arizona Legislature passed a bill Thursday that would ban ethnic studies programs in the state that critics say currently advocate separatism and racial preferences.
The bill, which passed 32-26 in the state House, had been approved by the Senate a day earlier. It now goes to Gov. Jan Brewer for her signature.
The new bill would make it illegal for a school district to teach any courses that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
The bill stipulates that courses can continue to be taught for Native American pupils in compliance with federal law and does not prohibit English as a second language classes. It also does not prohibit the teaching of the Holocaust or other cases of genocide.
Schools that fail to abide by the law would have state funds withheld.
[…]
“Traditionally, the American public school system has brought together students from different backgrounds and taught them to be Americans and to treat each other as individuals, and not on the basis of their ethnic backgrounds,” [State Superintendent for Public Instruction Tom] Horne said. “This is consistent with the fundamental American value that we are all individuals, not exemplars of whatever ethnic groups we were born into. Ethnic studies programs teach the opposite, and are designed to promote ethnic chauvinism.”
Horne began fighting in 2007 against the Tucson Unified School District’s program, which he said defied Martin Luther King’s call to judge a person by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Horne claimed the ethnic studies program encourages “ethnic chauvanism,” promotes Latinos to rise up and create a new territory out of the southwestern region of the United States and tries to intimidate conservative teachers in the school system.
But opponents said the bill would prevent teachers from using an academically proven method of educating students about history. They also argued that the Legislature should not be involved in developing school curriculum.
A sticky wicket, this. On the one hand, opponents of the legislation who argue that the legislature should not be involved in developing school curriculum would appear, at first blush, to have a valid point; putting legislatures in charge of creating curricula is a political powder keg — and, in addition to being a way to micromanage education, opens the door to all kinds of potential populist abuses from both sides of the political divide.
On the other hand, school curriculum developed by educational professionals and teachers — whose unions both support and are supported by a partisan affiliation with Democrats — is in many ways already quite politicized, with the pedagogical status quo representing a kind of epistemic closure that favors the orthodoxies of the left. That is, it institutionalizes as received truth a politicized version of knowledge built around leftist shibboleths — and in so doing, prevents parents from having much (if any) say about the content of their children’s public education.
Is legislating through the thicket of a the particular political client relationship between Democrats and public educators the best answer? I can’t say.
But I will say this: Arizonans appear tired of waiting around until such determinations are made — on the relatively sound reasoning that in the meantime, the institutionalization of “progressive” ideas are further breaking down the principles of classical liberalism upon which this country was founded.
Meaning, were I not a Rockies fan, I’d find myself really pulling for the Diamondbacks these days…
(h/t sdferr)
I don’t like it based on the fact that I have serious reservations with the idea that the legislature can point to an institute of higher learning, where attendance is voluntary, and state “you can’t teach that”. That said, I do believe it is up to the people of Arizona to decide for themselves how to deal with the problems that are facing their state. More, in a nation with 50 states and a high degree of mobility, this sort of localized flavors of liberty may even be desirable.
Shakira just met with the mayor of Phoenix and the city’s police chief. Is she gonna have to come back and kick some more butt? Don’t these simpletons in Arizona realize that this is Shakira they are fucking with? The shit is definitely getting serious now. Just wait until Sting hears about this.
— Keith Olbermann, April 29, 2010
The education establishment (in bed, as you pointed out, with partisan Dems) injected racial and ethnic preferences and chauvanism into school curricula. So it’s seems a bit rich to say that lawmakers now can’t correct those preferences because it’s a a powder keg and they’re micromanaging education.
“The new bill would make it illegal for a school district to teach any courses that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.” ”
Wow Arizona really doesn’t want a “confederate history month.”
Actually, bh, they have a very nice hitting catcher who is Hispanic.
Makewi, I don’t think this bill is targeted for universities. After reading the article (which is admittedly vague), I think it’s talking about secondary schools (like the racist Tucson Unified School District). As in, “ethnic” curricula at schools that children are legally mandated to attend.
Not that I’d have a huge amount of issue with a state withholding funds from racists classes at universities, either.
Universities I’d have a problem with. They aren’t required, first off, and second, that’s the place for the kind of “thinking” that gives us ethnic studies curricula of the kind that agitate for balkanization. And HATE.
All minorities look alike to Bathtub Boy.
Heh, I’m totally ignorant on the D-Backs, Jeff. Just wanted to mention the wild-eyed hint of RACISM!!! from a noted D-Bag.
I’m wondering if what is going on in Arizona might possibly generate enough interest in federalism to restore the great experiment of the republic, i.e., what works in Massachussetts might not work in Arizona, and vice versa.
Hasn’t Arizona been high among the preferred destinations of many Americans seeking to escape the moribund industrial Northwest and Midwest for more or less the last decade? What, I wonder, have they brought with them in the way of a majority political orientation and what effect, if any, has that orientation had on Arizonan politics?
So it’s seems a bit rich to say that lawmakers now can’t correct those preferences because it’s a a powder keg and they’re micromanaging education.
Whatever tool you craft for yourself can be wielded by your opponents when they take power. So you always have to be very careful to not give your enemies a way to destroy you.
OTOH, if the pearl-clutchers in the media want to find some actual sedition, the Reconquista movement is a good candidate.
Meant to write Northeast, not Northwest above. Apologies.
He’s on the DL with a torn knee, bh. Probably why Olberman missed him in his rush to do real investigative journalism.
Ella,
The thing that worries me in that case is the possibility of a sort of rolling definition of what chauvinism or racism are that is used as a political cudgel by either or both parties when it suits them. Maybe worry is too strong a word, but that would be what I would watch out for.
“Ethnic studies programs teach the opposite, and are designed to promote ethnic chauvinism.”
Holy shit, I think my head just exploded.
Jeff G, a university that receives not one thin dime of my tax money can teach any damn thing it wishes. When it wants to pick my pocket for the privilege, I should have some say.
Well, one could certainly work at creating a definition that reins in some of the potential “drift,” Makewi.
Me, I’ve always differentiated ethic identity from national identity for purposes of illustration. Both, when pressured, are artificial constructs. But national identity lays claim to its legitimacy based on shared citizenship under a set of founding documents that prescribe the social contract under which we agree to live.
As such, it is very much up front about what it is and why it exists. Whereas, counterdistinctively, ethnic identity is often based on the very real belief in ghosts — the past as a figure to be experienced by those in the present, in order to join two disparate nodes into a shared narrative.
All I remember about Arizona is that it was ridiculously hot, pretty much all the time.
And don’t even think about giving me any of that “dry heat” nonsense.
ethnic identity is often based on the very real belief in ghosts — the past as a figure to be experienced by those in the present
As evidenced by how the Left constantly refers back to the Jim Crow era or slavery to interpret everthing the Right says about pigmenty people.
Exhibit A being Darleen’s Controversial Cartoon (1795 comments and counting, the latest having been posted last Tuesday, fer the sake of Pete), wherein the trolls sailed into the comment section to lecture us about how black men used to be thought sex-crazed rapists, and would be lynched regularly for just thinking about thinking about looking at a white women.
Which, it’s true that such a dynamic existed in the past, but it’s also true that the racial dynamic has changed dramatically, to the point where a black man is in the White House and interracial marriage isn’t considered problematic (except among some racial minorities, ironically).
No, the Left would hold us perpetually hostage to the Sins of Our Fathers until we all absolve ourselves by accepting the Left’s benevolent yoke.
Arizona…my wife’s choice for a recent winter vacation and then she bought a place to avoid MN winters. The news out of Arizona confirms why I’ve been married to her for almost 50 years…very smart lady!
And don’t even think about giving me any of that “dry heat” nonsense.
Oh yeah? You wanna try enduring 117°F with 100% humidity? Where your sweat provides no evaporative cooling at all? Where the shade provides no relief? Where the night is only a couple degrees cooler than the day but you can’t really tell?
Here in the Desert West (I’m in Utah), your sweat evaporates the way God intended. When you jump in a pool or river or soak yourself with a hose, it actually cools you off instead of increasing your discomfort. Your clothes eventually dry off instead of chafing and making you miserable. You can take a shower and feel clean when you come out.
Salt doesn’t clump in the shakers, envelopes don’t preemptively seal, mildew doesn’t grow in the towel you left crumpled up in the corner, mold doesn’t grow in the walls; you can wash your hair before bed and wake up with it dry (with my extra-thick long hair, that’s a real advantage).
Yeah, Arizona heat is pretty intense, but I’ll take it dry over muggy any day of the week and twice on Wednesdays.
Oh yeah? You wanna try enduring 117°F with 100% humidity?
Sounds like Houston.
humidist
Tangentially (but not really) —
I can’t remember where I saw it, but a poll came out today re: Obama’s self-classification on the census as “black,” and only a quarter of respondents said he made the right/honest pick. A slight majority said he should have chosen “multi-racial.” The huge remainder of other-answerers weren’t subdivided, or even noted in the story, and there were no links to anything outside it, so it must have been AP or Reuters, so — bullshit meter says “quite possibly.”
Anyway, the insistence of the majority response, I don’t like much — by my (and supposedly the left’s) primary understanding of “race,” Obama is white past the point of parody — but the disobedience there is nice. A majority voiced a forbidden thought.
Hope? No. But it’s a small good thing. If it was real.
(And still, an actual black guy couldn’t be elected President, because of the suffrage. That was the trade.)
Yeah, but the Hutaree Militia is here and now. The Reconquistas haven’t had a big hit since the 15th century.
Mad dogs and Englishmen….
I like this one. It just says hey knock that gay shit off you dirty socialist losers.
I saw Obama on the front page of a tattle-sheet at the grocery store a little while ago. Is the celebrity wearing off? One can only hope.
Hah, looks like the government is about to lose the militia case: Link.
What Tucson teachers actually teach is frightening. The teachers are self-admitted socialists and/or communists. They are also not all minority. They are rabid members of National Education Association. I know, I work with them.
Yes, AZ is hot, and for three months really hot with the max highs almost always above 105 deg. August is hell — hot AND humid. But high humidity to us is 25%. Despite the heat, it’s livable because we don’t have the miserable humidity that the midwest has. Or even worse, the south. There are many places worse in the summer than the Arizona desert: New Orleans, Orlando, Selma, Atlanta, Washington DC, Newark, Arlington, Cincinnatti and some of those places have equally awful winters. AZ winters are magnificent.
Kyler, I moved to AZ from MN. The hot and muggy summer of MN aside, I figured I traded 9 months of lousy weather in MN for 3 months of heat in AZ.
And I never got tired of blue skies in the morning.
Which is why my fiance and I are planning on moving back to AZ.
Strike that last line.
No idea what I was thinking when I wrote that.
Yes, my fiance and I are planning to move to AZ. No, it’s not because of the weather.
Oh. I see.
The Texas legislature should be taking lessons.
humidist
Damn straight. I hate that stuff.
Humidity is evil and is probably the work of Satan.
It would be amusing to watch them turn California into Aztlan and then into a third-world shithole, if it weren’t for the fact that my father lives in So-Cal and doesn’t want to move.
“Comment by dicentra on 4/30 @ 4:01 pm #
humidist
Damn straight. I hate that stuff.”
Try growing up in a waouthwest Philadelphia brick row house in the 50s.
GIMME HEAT!!!!!!!!
I fucking HATE winter.
Of course Scottish Kate has to have the AIR CONDITIONER blasting away all summer.
I HATE LOVE!!!!!!!!
“…Chicano nationalists of the 1970’s to describe plans for the creation of a mythical Aztec homeland called Aztlán.”
Oh, cute.
They bringing back ripping out hearts and cannibalism?
to jimmy tango: we can drive and walk in the worse heat but what can you do in the worse winters? and there is always the am and pm hours to get about in during the worse heat and ac for all the other times. we are quite mobile year round, except when the dust storms hit which is rare. And oh, those beautiful skies and mountains. Hugh Downs was quite bright and right when he chose– of all the worldly places he had traveled– Arizona for retiring . Why Arizona isn’t telling everyone: “y’all come now” is beyond me. It is one of the best kept secrets of the USA and we have extra housing just waiting for you all at very reasonable prices.
Laz, where is “waouthwest Philadelphia?” Is it meoutheast of waouthwest Philadelphia?
I have no trouble getting around during the winter. I also find it much easier to wear more clothes to keep warm than to remove more clothes to keep cool because there is a limit to clothes removal. I depend on heat, you depend on air conditioning. It’s all a trade-off unless you live on the coast in San Diego, in which case you pay a truckload of money for the privilege and are surrounded by fools.
That said, the long Minnesota winters are tiring near the end, and I will probably move elsewhere sooner or later, probably to the desert somewhere.
#43 Blake
Sometimes typos are funnier than elaborate, carefully crafted jokes.
“Comment by Blake on 4/30 @ 4:22 pm #”
Like I habe explained before, I really rilly know how to spel.,
southwest Philly………….
And, being a white guy from southwest Philadelphia, the first question asked is…..
“What parish?”
I am soooo proud of Arizona and Gov. Brewer. States rights rule especially when it is the very same Federal rule. Over 70% of the citizens back Gov. Brewer’s decision. That is a fact. I just hope this catches on like wildfire with all the other states. You must be instrumental in your state in egging on the politicians to stand for fiscal responsibility and immigration is greatly tied to a state’s fiscal livelihood because of the financial drain it represents to each state. We in Arizona see what has happened in California and we want better for ourselves as citizens of this great country. Take America back through states’ rights, that is the name of the game.
Cranky, how long have you lived in MN? Are you anywhere near the Cities? I lived in and around Minneapolis/St. Paul for better than 20 years.
It would be amusing to watch them turn California into Aztlan
Look, they can have the cession back but only if we return it in same condition as when we got it—remove the roads, houses, schools, hospitals, factories, reservoirs, power lines, sewers, water and gas lines, railroads, and anything else we have built since 1848.
They look at the “Reconquista” as justice when in fact it’s loooooooting.
And Zimbabwe. Very Zimbabwe.
Laz, I won’t be typing that again in the near future. I’m quite sure it was harder for me to type than it was for you to fat finger a couple of keys.
I have to admit, though, it takes real talent to hit the “w” and “a” key at the same time while missing the “s” key entirely.
I moved to Minneapolis in 1995 to go to graduate school, and stayed after I (finally) finished. I live in Hennepin county.
Hmm, in 95 I spent a lot of time in Kieran’s Irish Pub, Filio’s, anywhere that served good beer.
I diligently practiced the mass consumption of booze.
My divorce may have had something to do with it. More than likely, though, I’m just an alcoholic at heart.
cranky-d
I lived in downtown San Diego (in the Gaslamp quarter) for 2-1/2 years, in a 3rd floor studio apartment with no A/C. There were windows on opposite sides of the room, so the near-constant breeze off the bay kept it reasonably cool. Yep, it cost a truckload: $1,100 a month for a 500 s/f studio…
I thought San Diego had the most pleasant year-round weather of anywhere I’ve ever lived. I’d live there still, if I could afford it.
I friend of mine moved to AZ a couple of years ago. He’s not very happy about his property taxes going up as fast as his property value is going down, though.
I’ve been to Kieran’s a few times, but I spend more time at Sally’s which is a college bar. I’m too old for the place but no one seems to care. I tend to hit Stubb and Herb’s when someone is visiting that likes decent beer.
I understand the law states that schools with this kinds of programs get their state funding yanked. Im OK with that. If a school wants to keep the program and can get by on local funding, more power to em. If the law did more than that, there would be a problem.
“More than likely, though, I’m just an alcoholic at heart.”
Do you go to meetings?
‘Cause if you don’t go to meetings, you’re just a drunk.
Powderkeg? Fine, light the fuse. For too long we’ve been tiptoeing around leftist “powderkegs.” But do it and deal with it. Get in their faces about it. Don’t do it and then look for cover.
LL, that’s what my dad says as well.
Blow-back. Make the left live up to their own declarations.
Pluribus or Unum.
Thank you, President Barack Obama, for putting post-racial out there. Thank you, American people, for calling that in.
I will note that state legislatures actually have the power and authority to determine what the curriculum is to be. The State of Michigan has that authority, and Michigan has taken over municipal governments (not just school districts) before. See the City of Ecorse, see the police department of the City of Benton Harbor, see the Detroit Public Schools (and my great-grandfather ought to be turning some high RPM’s).
#23 dicentra:
Yeah, Arizona heat is pretty intense, but I’ll take it dry over muggy any day of the week and twice on Wednesdays.
Me too. I have done patrols for the USCGAux on the Detroit River for various events – hydroplane races, air races, fireworks, etc. – and wearing ODU blues with high heat and high humidity just kills you. When you finally get back to USCG Boat Station Belle Isle you move as fast as you can to secure the facility so you can get inside to the blessed A/C. Bottled water is the greatest blessing you can have during those days – lots of water – screw soda-pop or gatorade. And when we have those clear days with low humidity – I cannot describe how wonderful it is. (And those days may run from 0700 on station to 1900 leave station. Yes, comfrot breaks (use a shoreside lavatory) are available if PATCOM agrees (usually does), but still it sucks when you realize that many of your fellow crewmembers are older than you (50+ years) and are feeling it worse.)
Of course the Coast Guard provides good meals (meals on wheels for the shore bound; meals on keels for the water bound) which is always a plus. They do us righteous with that.
You may have to go out. You may not have to come back. But either way, you will be well-fed before either occurs. :p
There are few things as unpleasant as a midwestern summer day when it is 95 degrees with 95% humidity even after the sun has set. But Houston sucks too. Bad.
All hail Willis Haviland Carrier.
Hail Willis! Hail Haviland! Hail Carrier!
Note to self: tell station that when you have surge events to have extra coffee pots going in the morning. And I will bring mine for that – or donate one for the good of the service. And coffee, if needed.
Solution: Road trip!!
“The new bill would make it illegal for a school district to teach any courses that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.””
Ignoring the bit about overthrowing the government for the moment, this bill could have the intended or unintended consequence of making some teachers of Womyn’s Studies courses nervous about their funding. Where is Perfesser Ric when you need him?
Or, as we like to call it, Irish.
Mr. daley!
Howdy!
Feets!
Howdy!
#67 sdferr: I agree. If you want to put anyone up for sainthood Mr. Carrier should make the list. And his invention came about to help the printing industry – so a free (make it legible in color) speech advocate also.
Laz,
Thanks for clearing that up.
Meetings are not a necessary evil, they’re just evil.
So, I’ll go with drunk.
Which I’m cool with.
For quite a few years I’d take my vacation days late July/early August and leave my southwest Michigan for Northern Ontario to fish. Nights in the low60-mid50’s beats that high 80-90’s and high humidity. Always figured 3 or 4 miserable weeks every Summer. A/C is a blessing for then indeed.
Jan Brewer for president.
President of what?
The Official Daleyfeets Fan Club.
67.Comment by sdferr on 4/30 @ 7:32 pm #
All hail Willis Haviland Carrier.
Hail Willis! Hail Haviland! Hail Carrier!
It’s one of those inventions that you’d just like to go up to the guys house and when he answers the door hand over a thousand bucks and say thanks man. That and screw top liquor bottles.
Arizona might just become the happiest place in America.
“Arizona? Arizona Creamcheese? This is the voice of your conscience, baby. Uh, I just to check one thing out with you, you don’t mind, d’ya? Arizona Creamcheese, honey — what’s got into you?”