Back in January we discussed the debate over changing the content of history textbooks to be used in Texan public schools. Proposed revisions to the primers included adding conservative elements such as the National Rifle Association and the Moral Majority. Yet suggestions included a shocking covering up of Latinos by the Texas State Board of Education (TSBE) such as possibly eliminating Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and labor leader Cesar Chavez from schoolbooks.The debate was renewed this week and numerous Latino activists voiced their displeasure at the proposed glossing over including downplaying some of the advances made by the civil rights movement. Nonetheless their voices fell on mostly deaf ears as the conservative majority on the TSBE helped approve the controversial social studies curriculum changes earlier today in an 11-4 vote.
The amendments even touched world history such as dropping “references to American “imperialism,’ preferring to call it expansionism.” Latin America was not spared from the TSBE’s ugly revisionism; the board deleted listing in textbooks Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero who was murdered in 1980 after speaking out against his country’s repressive government.
The whitewashing of Latinos and Latin America by the TSBE led to justifiable outrage by one of the panel’s members:
Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state’s large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, “They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”The TSBE’s decision not only affects Texas (with its notable Latino population) but other states likely to use the same textbooks as Texas. Thus the greatest losers of the “Texas Textbook War” (as one 24-hour “news” network exaggeratedly called it) are the hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren who will learn an inaccurate version of history.
“They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians,” she said. “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.”
Image- New York Times (“Preschool classes, taught in Spanish at the Long Island Children’s Museum, get the parents and their children ready for the first day of classes.”)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, New York Times, FOX News, AlterNet, Dallas Morning News, statesman.com
well history can be re-written. It is being showed as we speak. I grew up in guatemala, and the same thing happens there. It talks about the era of "la tazita de oro" if i remember correctly. No mentioning of the US sponsored coup or the involvement of the United fruit Company.
ReplyDeleteSo great job Texas! Let's rewrite the sanitized version of us history. While we at it lets take out Martin Luther King. Geez.
Funny you should bring up Dr. King, Paul. Per the N.Y. Times article linked to above:
ReplyDelete"(Board member) Dr. McLeroy, a dentist by training, pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the nonviolent approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."
I suppose one can call it subtraction by addition (to flip the cliche around).
re: the addition of Black Panthers, etc.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't the comparison of Dr. King's methods to contemporary alternatives only underscore his important role in American history? If anything, I think it highlights his heroism in that he was not only fighting racism, but fought "the right way", thereby cementing non-violent protest into American political culture.
No matter how heinous the wrongs suffered (I can't imagine any worse than what Blacks suffered under slavery and Jim Crow), the way to fight it was through non-violence. King's legacy is only enhanced by putting his methods in context.
This is outrageous.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it with these (white) idiots in Texas (well, and in a number of other States as well; KS, MS, AL, NE come to mind...).
It'd be interesting to see transcript of debate that took place in making these retrograde - and racist - decisions. I'd like to see what kind of @#&* rationale these people used in doing this...
Anon (1:07 am): I would normally agree that the inclusion of the Black Panthers into the curriculum would be fair and could be used to promote Dr.King's non-violent methods. Yet with the mostly conservative TSBE pushing their political agenda onto the textbooks my hunch is that the promotion of non-violence was not the aim they had in mind. (I REALLY hope my assumption is wrong).
ReplyDeleteTambopaxi: In that case you may want to check out how the TSBE decided to eliminate direct references to the Enlightenment and Thomas Jefferson:
http://tfninsider.org/2010/03/11/blogging-the-social-studies-debate-iv/
Texas could gain four seats in the House of Representatives. Two in Heavily Latino Districts.
ReplyDeleteAtlanta Journal-Constitution : Gay marriage, Immigration and the Census - Georgia can win two seats in the House, Texas four seats
It would be a horrible squandering of resources if people do not give accurate information, all the information asked should be completed.
States should do an effort for good information, specially those that gain a lot from the Census ( Seats in the House and Federal Money )
For their own benefit, the Poor and Minorities should help the Census Officials to achieve exactitude, accuracy and perfection in counting people, ages, etc ....
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Taking the national count
By Bill Steiden
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Associated Press, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, New York Times, Brookings Institution, Chicago Tribune, U.S. House of Representatives, Georgia Legislature, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post
Taking the national count :
http://www.ajc.com/news/taking-the-national-count-350028.html
Some excerpts
Gay marriage. In 2000, when there was no legal gay marriage in the United States, the census simply changed those who listed themselves as same-sex spouses to “unmarried partners.” Now that several states offer gay marriage, the census will count married same-sex partners for the first time. However, some gay and lesbian couples who would be married if they could be in their home states may list themselves as spouses even if they officially aren’t. That could throw off the count.
Illegal immigrants. By some estimates, Georgia in the decade just ended had the nation’s fastest-growing population of illegal immigrants. The census deliberately avoids asking people about their immigration status. The reasoning is that people who are in the country illegally will avoid participating in the census if they know they’ll be asked about their status. And for planning purposes, it’s vital to know how many people live in a particular place, no matter where they came from. Also, under current laws, the children born in this country of illegal immigrants are citizens, entitled to rights and government services even if their parents aren’t.
But that poses a problem for the census’ original purpose — apportioning political representation — because many people feel that a voting district full of people who are there in defiance of immigration laws shouldn’t have a numbers advantage over one that is mainly made up of native-born and naturalized citizens.
Distrust of government. Any big, expensive federal effort to gather details about people is naturally the target of some suspicion, and at a time when anti-Washington sentiment is running particularly high, people may deliberately refuse to participate in the census.
Even some government officials are balking. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has announced that because the Constitution only calls for an enumeration — not the more detailed information the census gathers — she and her family will simply list the number of people in their household and will leave the other questions blank.
The census’ counterargument is that gathering the additional information makes government more effective by allowing it to target aid and programs and plan facilities where they will do the most good. Also, it notes that the individual identifying information on census forms — such as names and the address where it was filled out — is off limits to the public for 72 years, meaning any such information gathered this year could not be accessed until 2082.
There is a law requiring people to fill out their census forms, and violating it carries a fine. But enforcement could cause a backlash that would make matters even worse.
Youth, Minorities, Politics :
Milenials.com
Vicente Duque
As whites become the minority, as they already are in Texas, they must accept minority status and their history becomes secondary to the new Latino majority.
ReplyDelete