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April 03, 2012

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Jon may be under the weather but he nailed it in the last paragraph when he observed, "Horne and Hupp might know this if they had done any "ethnic" studies outside the gated properties of their minds."

Seems to me that gated minds are more pervasive than gated communities. It is the old contrast of lifelong students vs. self-appointed authorities. One takes initiative and occasional head-scratching. The other takes little more than rote memorization, kept simple!

The American right's idea of education might be called a White Studies Program. Not so much in the sense that only dead white males seem to matter to them but that civilization itself is their story. So, cultural triumphalism demands a canon devoted to burnishing the myths they grew up with. America the Exceptional is also a story of Christian (and free-market) fundamentalists, who love freedom but hate abortion, the 1960s, gays, moral relativists and liberals. Capitalism redeems its believers from the products of its creative destruction. Call it the alchemy of belief in which only good arises from good. Everything else is of the devil.

Tribalism is upsetting to outsiders for good reason. We all want to belong, and if you don't, you could be another Trayvon Martin walking into your gated community only to find out you're excluded for violating an unwritten code of white studies. You can figure these things out as you get older but at 17, you might not fully appreciate the lethal nuances.

Arizona's solution to cultural discontent is a variation on Pat Buchanan's program. Uphold traditional values like Catholicism, family, and respect for authority, but remember that it has to be enveloped in white skin. Brown people don't qualify. They're not Real Americans. Their stories are not America's stories. Respect for the individual means respect Anglo culture. Collectivism happens when you forget that crucial detail.

One issue that cuts across all racial lines, income strata and every cultural catagory you want to study, the breakdown of the family unit is at the core of all our problems.

There is a saying in the Navajo culture when someone is behaving badly, "He acts like he has no family".

You can take any issue facing our country today and trace it back to people who are acting " as if they have no family".

No family, no shame, no limit to the damage you can do to your fellow man.

There are those on this blog who feel that if left to their own, humans as a rule will act in goodness.

There are those on this blog who feel that left to their own, humans will act badly.

Since, I am in the latter group, I say, walk softly and arm yourself accordingly.

Azrebel, I don't want to argue unnecessarily about this, but have you noticed how the party of family values is also the party of untrammeled capitalism? And have you noticed that family structure gets eroded by the the very things we all gladly profess to want? Things like economic freedom, individualism, and autonomy?

Liberals didn't invent modern society in order to attack traditional values. Those values were already under assault from a wrenching revaluing of social norms in advanced societies. People moved away from traditional agrarian society into cities. After a couple of generations, they no longer lived in multi-generational households. And later yet, they divorced with much greater freedom. People like Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich, for example.

There's an idea about "values" that they can be "politicized" in order to preserve them. This seems to me to be an inversion of what really happens. Your "values" simply reflect your social matrix, and your social matrix reflects conditions that are wholly subordinate to economic life. I'm not saying this is right or this is the way it should be. I would say this is reality. And if we skip over the chain of causation obliviously, we'll declare a culture war that doesn't really make anything better, except for people like Jan Brewer, Tom Horne, and the NRA.

The same bigoted 'Tea Party'extremists.. or "kooks".., in the effort to be ..'down on brown'..

(Huppenthal and Horne) ..'Ignored'.. their own Independent Cambiun Audit, which not only cleared the successful MAS Program......It went on to praise it..

"this program should be expanded not shut down.."

They also had a TUSD Board member (the same "Tea Party kook") misrepresent the viable and successful course.

Hicks, as seen on your link.. is about as bigoted as they come in Az.. He shows his true colors and agenda in the interview.. Satirical or not..

He not only should resign from the TUSD School Board.. There should be some sort of Federal Inquiry as to how this bigoted member can oversee students in a school district, that comprises of over a 60% Hispanic student body.

Furthermore.. they (TUSD-thanks to Hicks) are ignoring a Federal Deseg Order.. in which the Program is required under Federal Court Order to "expand" MAS courses.. or risk losing up to 63 Million in Federal dollars.. The dilemma now becomes the States 15 Million or the Feds 63 million.. Imagine that..?

Judge A. Wallace Tashima is the Federal Judge who will rule this month on the Constitutionality of the bigoted law HB2281.. targeting Mexican American Studies..

Oh wait.. there is more.. recently the bigoted loons set their sights on UofA's "ethnic studies" program..

Though hopefully the Judge will soon put a period the Anti-Hispanic trend once and for all..

Regards,
Truth

Medieval Arizona.

Jon has this right.

The Republicans love immigrants and Hispanics, as long as they don't vote and work for low wages.

George Bush flooded the country with illegal immigrants by deliberately refusing to enforce immigration laws.

The purpose of current immigration strategy is to replace Americans with immigrant worker. The driver for all policy that relates to Hispanic people is to make the work for low wages.

If you consider everything about Hispanics with that point of view, everything becomes perfectly clear. It is NOT racism. It is the procurement of cheap labor.

Even though racism is totally wrong.

Arizona demonstrates what the entire country would look like with unfettered Republican control. The Republican Party is no longer the party of the educated managerial and commercial class. It is the party of dumb and dumber and proud to be so.

The US is naturally gifted with resources and natural protection from other global powers. These unique gifts allow for the ignorant beliefs of the Republican Party to live on.

Does anyone think Japan, Germany, Northern European countries or China could be compete if they wasted so much energy placating the medieval beliefs of the Republican Party.

OT, but a subject near and dear to all of our hearts:

Department of Justice Cuts Off Negotiations With Sheriff Joe Arpaio

I watched the Daily Show during lunch today and about fell out of my seat. It was painful to watch as an AZ resident. Hicks is aptly named. How the F*** did this guy graduate from pushing a shovel to a school board member?! I can understand how US History can make everyone squirm with the injustice, hypocrisy, and shear terror of it all. It's not pretty but to sugar coat it all (in a nice white coating no less) is even uglier. The US is in desperate need of honest dialog and a clear understanding of where we came from.

Watching Hicks play ping-pong inside that vacuous head while trying to figure how to present Afro-American history was painful. Madrigal crucified AZ with minimal effort. I know Hicks is unaware that he is the joke (judging from his responses to his pathetic performance on the web and his self-proclaimed victimization by the Daily Show). Evidently a recall effort starts Sunday.

Why is there no recall effort against Horne or Huppenthal? They brought this mess on. And when has an army ever represented individual rights -- its collectivist by it's very nature. KOOK!

Here's the Star story, with comments:

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/education/precollegiate/tusd-s-mexican-american-studies-makes-daily-show/article_aab87a34-7dab-11e1-b7fa-001a4bcf887a.html

More on Hicks -- Gawd, he TEACHES at a community college!

http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=975445

I wanted to share this with the community here:

"People living in democracy are busy – they elect leaders so that they don’t have to think about politics all the time."

This is from the blog Ask A Korean! from an entry on President Roh of S. Korea. I think it quite insightful and that we are not getting this from the Kooks anymore.

“When the program goes away, the burritos go away. That’s why these kids are upset. No mas burritos.” -Hicks

A seriously ignorant, and racist, comment. Burritos cause ethnic solidarity and student-teacher bonding ya'll! That's dangerous.

About the title, "Ethnik Studees"...it actually took me a second to make sense of it...I'm not up to date on my Palinese.

So I just watched the video...Hicks didn't actually say that but Al Madrigal did...he was parodying Hicks.

Great column.

"When we encountered this situation, we did what Hannibal did to the Romans. This is the eternal battle, the eternal battle of all time, the forces of collectivism against the forces of individuality."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fuDDqU6n4o

What Arizona really needs is yet another party school where anybody can get a Masters in Salt River Tubing.

We have morphed from a Catholic/1st generation Reformation - Lutheran-Episcopalian nation (which had some social and communal values) to a Calvinist "Double predestination" nation. The poor are just not God's elect, and it's not our part to do anything for them!

"The Republicans love immigrants and Hispanics, as long as they don't vote and work for low wages." -Mick

Not these Republicans. In fact they don't even want them working in Arizona, low wages or otherwise. But this misses the point; there have been Hispanics in Arizona before there were white "Americans" and one reason why Tucson is called the Old Pueblo. Teaching this is threatening to those like Hicks who are paranoid that an Atzlan rebellion is part of the curriculum.

Knowing someone who has taught at inner city Phoenix high schools for many years, it is interesting to hear about how the light-skinned Latinos often look down on those with darker skins. We're not dealing with an homogeneous culture, are we? There's a pecking order that allows some to feel superior. And what about the recent arrivals with little or no education and English fluency? They've de-stabilized entire neighborhoods and dragged down entire school systems . . creating what Jon has called "linear slums". If "Ethnik Studees" produce faster/better assimilation, that'd be great . . but I wonder whether this is really the case?

Morecleanair,

Let me be more clear: If the people who spent so much time and whipped up such hysteria over the Tucson program were actually committed to improving education for the poor and minorities, they would have more standing. They aren't and don't.

A mastery of reading, math, sciences, **history** and civics is essential for all students. Immigrants must master English to become full players in the economy. All students should learn a second language.

I am always wary of PC programs that breed a sense of victimization or teach inaccurate/incomplete history. I don't know that's the case with Tucson; indeed, the state audit, which the Kooks chose to ignore, praised it. And, again, looking at the shameful levels of funding and commitment for minorities to get the education that will ensure economic mobility -- hell, I'd feel like a victim.

And there's no substitute for really teaching history — not a propaganda version, but real history, with open-minded inquiry and a realization that new facts and perspectives keep emerging, that different interpretations exist. We also need to learn more about different cultures and outlooks. All this is essential for making citizens, not just pods to be plugged into the Matrix -- or be thrown away by society as not worth the effort.

Any why has Typepad put this in ital?

Nice follow-up Rogue!

plus attempt to end italics<\i> Worked?

"...light-skinned Latinos often look down on those with darker skins." -morecleanair

That has been true to some extent. Look up "Españoles/New Mexican families". This type of discrimination is less pervasive in the U.S. than it has been in much of Latin America (especially Argentina and Mexico).

As for new immigrants vs. those of us that have been here for a while, I feel that with younger generations this type of distinction means much less than they did to our grandparents and parents. Perhaps the ethnic studies classes in Tucson were providing a way for immigrants and those whose families have been citizens for many generations a way to cooperate, communicate, and learn from each other? And that was seen as a threat.

I'm sure these classes could have been improved, engaging more non-Hispanics for one, but they provide a sense of belonging to a community and ultimately, as a citizen of the U.S. I took African-American, Hispanic, and Asian studies classes in high school and the university and never felt they taught to resent a group of people alive today.

As for the italics, perhaps I had something to do with that. I meant to italicize a few words in my post and forgot the "\" in the command to end italics. My apologies...interesting how it affected beyond my post.

Test

Morecleanair, what do you mean by assimilation? I often equate that word with the eventual loss of culture. I value integration and "cross-pollination"...

phxSUNSfan: By "assimilation" I was thinking of the kids who were motivated to become proficient in English, aspired to the best education available and generally mainstreamed themselves. This would be contrasted with those with comparatively little motivation to improve themselves . . often becoming dropouts and just maybe a future burden on society.

And please understand that these are not armchair observations. I speak passable Spanish, have property in Mexico and am solidly behind the Dream Act.

Its all for naught. The kooks are mental retards committed to eradication, by violence if necessary, of those that are not like them and dare to challenge them

In my travels I noted the desert is creeping east. The valley of the sun will be "the desert."

http://www.takepart.com/lastcall?cmpid=lastcall-eml-welcome

See? phxSUNSfan takes these commie ethnic studies classes when his real agenda is to hijack an all-American typeface and replace it with Islamo-fascist italics!

Ethnick Studease.

It's ironic that Huppenthal framed the issue as a battle between collectivism and individualism, considering the fact that the whole point of a school system governed by local districts was to prevent a centralized power like the state (collectivism) from imposing ideological uniformity on localities (individualism).

It isn't surprising, however, because it shows that Huppenthal's real concern is the political content of the course: the only conceivable collectivism involved is the anti-capitalist leftism espoused by some of the texts.

"Collectivism versus individualism" is a shallow false dichotomy in any case, not a mature and developed political philosophy.

The whole point of collective action is to empower the individual: by acting in concert with like-minded others the individual's power and reach is magnified and extended, and he is able to attain personal goals that, as an isolated individual, he lacks the social or political leverage to effect.

Obviously then, any rational social construct will attempt to balance the rights of individuals against those of majorities.

And indeed, there are laws that restrict individual action (speed limits, child-safety seats, criminal laws against rape, laws designed to secure the safety of water and air from polluters and food & drugs from cost-minded manufacturers, etc.); while at the same time individual freedoms are addressed through enumerated constitutional rights, due process of law, an independent judiciary, and so forth.

The discussion, then, is never really about "collectivism versus individualism" -- except in the puerile rhetoric of pseudo-conservatives like Huppenthal -- but is always about how the boundaries should be drawn in any specific case, so as to empower democracy while protecting individuals from the tyranny of the majority (or from the tyranny of a small but powerful governing group claiming to act on behalf of the majority).

The principles cited by Huppenthal and his cronies in the legislature and the executive are merely a fine-sounding but expedient rhetoric: local or centralized power will be supported or opposed based solely on whether in doing so conservative ideology is empowered and that of its opponents weakened.

With Democrats in control of centralized government agencies, the slogan of the day is "support your local school board" or "support your local sheriff"; but with the shoe on the other foot, the instinctual reaction of conservatives is to use their control of federal or state governments to impose their ideological agenda on individual pockets of moderates and liberals.

P.S. I couldn't get of the italic but I consider bold italic more readable, hence the change.


I meant, I couldn't get (rid) of the italic, so added bold.

Fixed it! Took a capital I not a small i.

Ahh! Thank you Emil...I was using the "i" in the command.

Excellent discussion Emil. The intellectual dishonesty of the American right appears to be without limit. History, law, or ethics is all relative to their end of imposing right wing ideology on every sector of society. Facts be damned.

Rogue emphasizes the importance of history in education and life; yet one observes the continual false revision of history to conform with rightist ideology. These self appointed historians usually possess no formal training in the work of historian. In fact, the loudest of right wing pundits seem to have been incapable of completing or succeeding in organized educational institutions. And yet they play the seductive siren well and attract a dangerous following of non-thinkers.

Republicans are cretins.

If you keep them stupid and keep them having kids, you have a lot of cheap labor for your service industry job. Then the charter school can privatize education. Tax dollars can be turned for profit for elite capitalists!

In other education news:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/2012/03/28/20120328brewers-pick-conservative-blogger-regents-post-riles-dems.html

Does this fix it?

Looks like maybe it did.

Guess not. But it did fix it the preview.

Careful now, y'all!

http://gizmodo.com/5898585/itll-soon-be-illegal-to-troll-in-arizona

Follow up to other education news:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/2012/04/04/20120404arizona-conservative-blogger-regents-nomination-hits-snag-patterson.html

Viva la diversidad!

Maybe off-topic but still relevant: Some Phx high schools run a version of "Anytown USA", which sounds like a version of the old sensitivity groups. The kids and facilitators basically go off on a retreat with an agenda that deals with prejudices, stereotypes and generally how we relate to one another with respect. I've wished that something like this would be offered to adults because I'd sign up and maybe bring a few of my geezer friends if they're subject to bring bribed with good wine and martinis!

Under the Arizona statute, Arizona public educational institutions should also be prohibited from teaching about Marxism and 20th Century American Radicalism. As ASU strives for national recognition, ultra-conservative appointments to the Arizona Board of Regents can only enhance its standing with the US World & New Report ratings.

And don't forget, these are the cranks who demanded that the American flag and Constitution be posted in every COLLEGE classroom — even as they defund higher education.

jmav wrote, "These self appointed historians usually possess no formal training in the work of historian."

The same applies to self-appointed economists. Robert Robb keeps writing columns about how the United States has a dangerously high debt level, citing conservative economists who say that when a nation's debt reaches 100 percent of its GDP it's essentially entered an economic swampland which requires quick and decisive action to escape.

The problem is that those economists (e.g., Kotlikoff, Rogoff and Reinhart) are talking about debt to the public, i.e., debt net of intra-governmental accounts (the latter include the phony "trust funds" for Social Security and Medicare); debt to the public stood at 62.3 percent in 2010. It's only the gross debt that exceeds 100 percent. But of course, that kind of distinction doesn't serve Robb's program-cutting agenda; panic does.

Even when they write on matters for which they are technically qualified, today's crop of conservative ideologues, especially the ones who write for the general public (which, after all, are the ones we usually come to know), often have embarrassingly low standards.

I picked up a copy of Thomas Sowell's book "The Housing Boom and Bust" for a buck at a dollar store. Sowell has a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago, and is currently a Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institute at Stanford, so he's no slouch.

The book was well worth a dollar for a single chapter ("The Economics of the Housing Boom") marshalling statistics about the housing crisis (some of them amazing and rarely reported), and for his source notes at the end of the book.

His analyses of the facts, however, were quite weak, as were the arguments and conclusions stemming from them, apparently because he was so intent on scoring ideological points for his team with the public, that he couldn't or wouldn't apply anything remotely approaching academic standards.

Some of his arguments were embarrassingly bad, like something you might find in an undergraduate paper from an ideologically motivated but not very well educated freshman. His last chapter was largely a non sequitur and was largely devoted to arguing that the New Deal was an abject failure and actually made the Great Depression worse.

This is usually what happens when you start with a Grand Philosophy (especially on the political fringes, in Sowell's case libertarianism) and try to fit the facts into an absolutist framework: you're not only blinkered from seeing the obvious, but you torture the facts on the procrustean bed of dogma until they "fit" your arguments.



Emil, the self-declared economic experts are abundant. Most are cut and past authors who do not understand the concepts they writing about but only the conclusions which confirm their feelings. Rogoff however does have the background I just disagree with his analysis and conclusions.

Good post Emil. I like it when you are opionizing

OK Opinionizing

Sowell used to have some chops, but no more. He posts on Townhall mostly these days. Rep. Ryan is what passes for an economist in Congress.

Nice work all on the italizin' and boldin'!

jmav wrote:

"Rogoff however does have the background I just disagree with his analysis and conclusions."

Just to clarify: Robb was misrepresenting the work of Rogoff, et al. So, if you disagree with Rogoff, Robb's caricature was one step further removed.

Excerpt:

In a March 28 interview with Fox News Latino, Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction said he is considering suspending Mexican American studies in Arizona universities.

Superintendent John Huppenthal, who led the fight to suspend Mexican American studies from the Tucson Unified School District, said universities are responsible for the public school’s curricula that teaches students to resent Anglo-Saxons.

"I think that’s where this toxic thing starts from," Huppenthal said in the interview.

As superintendent of public instruction, Huppenthal executes State Board of Education policies and laws that apply to public and charter schools in Arizona.

By virtue of his elected public office, Huppenthal serves on all statewide public education boards, including the Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s public university policies and procedures.

http://www.statepress.com/2012/04/05/arizona-official-considers-extending-ethnic-studies-law-to-universities/

More on the fallout (or saga) that the wingnut "Kooks" and some sell-out Dems, in an effort to continure to be..'down on brown'.., with respect to MAS and its once successful program..

http://threesonorans.com/2012/04/09/the-silencing-of-mexicans-continues/

Regards,
Truth

Nationally from yesterdays Boston Globe..

"Ethnic Studies"..

http://articles.boston.com/2012-04-09/opinion/31305639_1_governor-jan-brewer-mexican-american-studies-immigration

Regards,
Truth

From today's azcentral op-ed.. a bigoted loon or "kook" .. continues his vile and attacks on not only MAS but the protesters...calling them "Commies".. Uneffen believable, that the AZ Rep News could employ such an openly bigoted columnist..

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/DougMacE/159289

Regards,
Truth

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