Since most public school students in
My grandfather migrated from
For more information, see: http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/01/10/texas-conservatives-closer-to-banning-cesar-chavez-from-school-textbooks/
Monday, January 11, 2010
Stop Texas from Rewriting History
As a retired Philadelphia Public School teacher and member of a family blessed with European/Latina/African/Navajo/Chinese ethnicity, I find omitting historical facts related to any human being of any ancestry totally unacceptable. Therefore, I am outraged that the Texas State Board of Education is even considering taking a vote on January 13 that would, for all intents and purposes, erase Cesar Chavez and all Latino historical figures from the state’s public school textbooks.
Since most public school students inTexas Europe , and the beauty of American democracy is that we try not to do that with our children. It is important that our children learn about all historical figures, European, Latino, Native American, Asian, African and more.
My grandfather migrated fromAustria-Hungary in a region now part of Poland
Texas should not let its status as a powerful state in this great United States
Since most public school students in
My grandfather migrated from
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Oy! Where to begin? This is from the first link:
ReplyDelete"Nevertheless, advisers to the Texas Board of Education have come to question the historical value of teaching children in Texas about Chavez’ life. Their verdict without a trial has cast Chavez as inconsequential to American history despite the fact that his legacy can strongly resonate with children in Texas who happen to be mostly Latino.
The United Farm Workers of America — the union that Chavez and Dolores Huerta helped found in 1962 — is leading the fight to stop the Texas School Board from banning Chavez. According to UFWA, Gail Lowe, the chair of the board, who happens to be an outspoken creationist, has said that:
(Cesar Chavez) “lacks the stature…and contributions” and should not “be held up to our children as someone worthy of emulation.”
Imagine. This monsterous idiot of a woman passing judgment on Cesar Chavez.
I hope the Latino community fights this and buries it in the dung heap of other shameful Texas bigotry against which so many have fought.
The reason Republicans talk about historical revisionism so much is that they're the largest practitioners of it in the US and they're as good as it as the Stalinists. This would be going on all over the country if we hadn't cornered the Confederates in places like Texas.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just about pretending Chavez was of no importance. Sure she's trying to write all Latinos out of significance, but also the labor movement, the Civil Rights movement and probably any of the Liberal movements that made this into a modern (almost) nation and were opposed by "conservatives."
I've gotten shallow, condescending smiles from Texans when discussing the outright theft of vast lands from the Tigua and other tribes as if it were no more important to history than the exploitation of immigrant farm workers. Texas has a lot to forget.
Maybe it has something to do with the obvious but slow change in America, that the bigots have to defend the false-front history they wish were true. The good old days of their imagination were the time when white Anglo Saxon Protestants with Christian values created this white man's country with God's help and nobody else had any part in it, unless it was a bad part and they should all be grateful we don't throw them out.
Yep, America once deported fifth generation citizens of Chinese extraction, stripping them of their citizenship because of the "yellow Peril." It's all part of the same American charade.
For what it's worth, I discovered a web site where they're trying to show that Benedict Arnold was egged on to treason by the Jews and that the Jews owned all the distilleries and were using them to poison us all and that's why we needed Prohibition. You'll find stuff from the 19th century about how the Chinese were plotting to make us all dope addicts and give us syphilis, the Irish were going to kill us all with tuberculosis and you'll still hear Lou Dobbs tell us that Mexico is trying to export Leprosy along with cannabis. We've been a huge cesspool of psychotic and hysterical hatreds almost from the very start.
Bigotry, deceit and denialism aren't just bad habits, they're a fatal disease, you know -- and they know. Rush wants the country to fail after all, and so do they.
Omitting or blatant lying about historical facts in school books has been going on for years, except it's been hidden and/or covered up for quite some time. I think it's a disgrace. HISTORY is about FACTS no matter how egregious or glorious. OUR children NEED to learn ALL of it so they can make an EDUCATED decision. If they don't have ALL the facts then it truly is INDOCTRINATION!
ReplyDeleteI wrote about this a few months ago when it was first introduced. I lived there for ten years. Texas has a lot of color and ethnicity, but the state is basically a mixed bag.
ReplyDeleteFortunately it has enough liberal pockets - Austin, San Antonio and even Houston (despite the River Oaks and Memorial areas) that this may never come into being. Can you imagine trying to attract new industry with this kind of educational offering?
If it does get approved, it's a Supreme Court case waiting to happen.
But what can you expect from a state who had two rich, rich sisters named Ima and Ura Hogg?
It is remarkable that anybody would consider Cesar Chavez to lack sufficient stature for the history books. All I can do is mention Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States as an antidote to those who try to erase significant people, movements, and events from history.
ReplyDeleteThe rewriting of history is pet peeve of mine, actually it's much more than that. Texas has some top class universities what are they going to think when they get a Freshman class that knows practically nothing about real history, and the real people that made that history. These wack jobs are not rewriting history they are denying it.
ReplyDeleteReagan worshippers have raised him to near mythic status, crediting him for words that were never realized in deeds, for deeds that were never accomplished, and a reverence that is undeserved. Conservatives are much better at creating legends, frames, and metaphors than liberals. And while conservative policy ideas stink, their framing has sticking power.
ReplyDeleteA quote from a few posts below. And the same goes for those whom we choose to raise as cultural icons. Of course, we have our heroes that reflect our values, and the right wing will choose those whom reflect theirs. Not that I approve, but consider historical revisionism as an another manifestation of the cultural wars.
I agree - it's denialism at its finest and this is a good place to plug Michael Specter's Denialism It's one of the better books I've read recently.
ReplyDeleteOcto,
ReplyDeleteI just wish it weren't so damned effective, but that it is, owes something to the decline of education in many fields. There is a huge gulf separating the American public from science, math and history and so they're so ready to believe anything that feeds their post-modern cynicism.