Recently, I found out that my work is mentioned in a book that has been banned, in effect, from the schools in Tucson, Arizona. The anti-ethnic studies law passed by the state prohibits teachings that “promote the overthrow of the United States government,” “promote resentment toward a race or class of people,” “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group,” and/or “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.” I invite you to read the book in question, titled Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, so that you can decide for yourselves whether it qualifies.
Perhaps I’m guilty of living in a bubble where reason and reality rule, when intellectual rigor, the provable, and the demonstrable are the minimum daily requirement. Perhaps I’m part of a deluded minority who expect that, when someone presents an argument or a theory, they can support it with…you know, evidence. Perhaps I’ve been stuck in my ivory tower for so long that I never got the memo that faith and belief were to be considered at the very least equivalent- and in many cases, superior- to fact and logic.
This will probably horribly arrogant, but you’ll just have to deal with it- some days I feel as if our collective IQ and intellectual agility is falling by the hour. In a world where Fox News Channel is the king of cable news by a fair piece, ignorance and reaction reign. When people seriously believe that the only knowledge Americans will ever need can be found in the Holy Bible, how can a reasonable person not find themselves tamping down a sense of panic and foreboding?
When stupid people make stupid rules for stupid reasons and then act as if they’re standing up for intellectual honesty, how does one not fear for the future of the republic? When ideas and intelligence are considered to be the enemy, how are we to progress and keep up in an increasingly competitive global economy? When you ban books (not that you’ve read them, of course) because you believe that they might threaten your prejudice and preconceived notions, how is one to feel anything resembling optimism regarding the future?
I invite you to take on as your summer reading the astonishingly lengthy list of books that have been removed from the Tucson public school system as part of this wholesale elimination of the Mexican-American studies curriculum. The authors and editors include Isabel Allende, Junot Díaz, Jonathan Kozol, Rudolfo Anaya, bell hooks, Sandra Cisneros, James Baldwin, Howard Zinn, Rodolfo Acuña, Ronald Takaki, Jerome Skolnick and Gloria Anzaldúa. Even Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience and Shakespeare’s The Tempest received the hatchet.
Trying to explain what was offensive enough to warrant killing the entire curriculum and firing its director, Tucson school board member Michael Hicks stated rather proudly that he was not actually familiar with the curriculum. “I chose not to go to any of their classes,” he told Al Madrigal on The Daily Show. “Why even go?” In the same interview, he referred to Rosa Parks as “Rosa Clark.”
What’s happening in Tucson isn’t even the worst example of our seemingly inexorable slide into idiocracy. All one need do is look at what’s happening in Texas and the Deep South to understand the power of ignorance and reaction and how it translates into edumicating future generations. When children are denied exposure to “dangerous” ideas and are taught only from “acceptable” sources, what you have is no longer education; it’s indoctrination.
We oppose the teaching of higher order thinking skills, critical thinking, and similar programs.
- Texas Republican Party platform
One might be forgiven for believing that quote to be satirical…but, sadly, it’s not. When the teaching of critical thinking skills is thought to be a bad thing, when you believe the only use of education is to teach children to obey Jesus, what you have is a recipe for disaster, an example of the worst sort of ignorant, hyper-religious devolution.
Religious belief is not the enemy…unless it’s combined with ignorance, arrogance, and the desire to create a compliant army of Christian soldiers. It would appear that’s exactly where we may be headed.
Who knew that Idiocracy was actually a documentary?
