Sunday, October 5, 2014

"Arizona Official Considers Targeting Mexican American Studies University"

Is American really the land of the free?
In any sense, we shouldn’t ban the youth from any books unless it has tragic instances or purely shows hate towards the government or anyone else. The books that are supposedly implying to overrun our government are being banned for that reason but these books have inspired people to provide a voice for what you believe in. Voices that help you stand for your opinions and to defend yourself from the racist ignorant people in this world. The government also banned over eighty books all at the same time and some classes were removed because the books were vital for the course.                
                The curriculum was Mexican American Studies (MAS) at Tucson Unified school District, for this act to happen so close from where we live, scares me. MAS was used to provide critical thinking and focused on Mexican-American history and literature.  Many supporters admired the program because it provided higher graduation rates and state- commissioned audit that advocated for expansion of the program. All these benefits coming from a single program, why would our government that suppose to keep us protected, ban this course? They stated that the teachers were “encouraging students to dislike white people” , which the teachers denied.     
 I believe the government doesn’t want the Mexican Americans to start pursing their own ideas because it can be against what the government is doing. I necessarily don’t think that’s a bad idea because we all have our own opinions and the government’s approach definitely isn’t the way to do it. Like you said before, it can be challenging at times to teach us an assignment that can’t integrate your opinion. I feel MAS shouldn’t be banned because the government thinks the teachers are teaching them to resent white people, if you look at other classes they show resentment towards a certain ethnic group. According to another article I read, Margaret Duran wanted the students to know Republicans don’t hate Latinos but the students were irritable because they couldn’t voice their opinion and left the assembly. Attorney General Tom Horne questioned MAS which teachers taught students about free speech, but why couldn’t they voice their opinions? That would make the speech very one-sided and biased if the students that Margaret trying convince cant response to what she’s saying.
Occupied American represents that theory and shows if you say what you stand for and then people will respect what you have to say. Occupying American is one of the main voices for the Chicano Americans that live in the U.S. The book shows the Chicano history in their perspective that shows many things that the history books missed. The reason why I like this books and was appalled when I saw it banned because it shows a different viewpoint that I never thought of when learning this in my history course. I realized how biased our history books really are and learned not to judge everything single thing my teacher says. I used to think history books were 100% fact and didn’t have no opinions but books like these are essential for the youth because it opens a part of your mind that will help you later on in life.




Resources:
Planas, Roque. "Arizona's Law Banning Mexican-American Studies Curriculum Is Constitutional, Judge Rules." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 11 Mar. 2013. Web. 6 Oct. 2014.
"Ethnic Studies Myths." Tucson Weekly. Web. 6 Oct. 2014.

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