You remember being in middle school, flipping through the yearbook, and coming across someone you're not particularly fond of? As a kid, you'd take a pen and scratch their face out, right? These days, i find myself doing the same, only this time, I'm scratching Arizona off all my US maps... i dont usually write political/social commentary on this blog, but i have to say, what's happening in Arizona is so maddening!
The recent laws signed and passed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer are so blatantly ignorant, racist, and ethnocentric, it shocks me that this is happening here and now. Stripping immigrants, and people who look like immigrants, of their constitutional rights to due process and protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, and consciously choosing educational curriculum that teaches only one story, white European American history, what's next? Herding all people of color into concentration camps? or is that on the agenda for 2015?
Let's be clear about what this really is: This is fearful white America's fucked up attempt to remain in control of a country that is ever so quickly becoming a minority majority.
Governor Jan Brewer and other Arizona state electeds are leading the state down an ugly road, and setting dangerous precedent for the rest of the country. The world is not unfamiliar with people of power and privilege flexing their muscles by squelching the basic human rights of people who are different, and shamelessly omitting historic atrocities from their educational system. Or have we forgotten Germany's denial of the Holocaust? Or the fact that Japan terrorized and pillaged most of Asia for centuries, yet, even today, refuses to acknowledge the pain that they've inflicted on generations of people?
Arizona's laws, meant to "secure the land" and prevent "resentment towards the US government or towards an ethnic group", will only breed that which they aim to end. When the US citizen children of immigrants (racially profiled, whether documented or not) come of age to participate in civic life as elected officials and/or voters, do the people of Arizona think that these citizens will easily forget the racist laws aimed at criminalizing their parents? When the young adults of Arizona step outside their borders and realize that they were fed (white) American history and robbed of a well-rounded education, does the school board of Arizona really believe that these students will not feel "resentment towards their government" and the ethnic group that enacted such a backwards law?
Supporters of the new law banning ethnic studies argue that public tax dollars should not be spent on classes "designed for pupils of a particular ethnic group". What these supporters are advocating instead are classes in "US History", but what they fail to recognize is that ethnic studies classes are not classes on the history of Mexico, or the history of China, those are world history classes. Ethnic studies classes teach students about the experiences and contributions of ethnic groups within the United States. Ethnic studies classes are US History classes.
To deny ethnic studies is to deny any non-white contribution to society. It is to invalidate any non-white American historical experience. It is to study history only from the perspective of the victor, where other figures are reduced to objects of the victor's story, and not recognized as equally relevant, participating subjects. By banning ethnic studies from the state of Arizona, educators are relegating students to a partial understanding of United States history, thereby ensuring that future generations will continue to perpetuate the myth that white European American history is the only valid and legitimate story of this country, and implying that white Americans are the only people of value in this society.
European American history is NOT US history.
It is a part of a larger picture of Asian-American, African-American, Latino-American, and Native American history. These classes are not just aimed towards a particular ethnic group, they're open to all students. In fact, Arizona would be a much less ignorant state if more whites chose to take ethnic studies classes. Perhaps then as a society, we can move forward rather than perpetuating the mistakes of Jim Crow South, Nazi Germany, or South African apartheid.
Diffusing resentment towards whites and towards the United States government cannot involve using the legal system to victimize an entire group of people, nor can it involve a systematic and deliberate denial of historical facts. It must involve a recognition and acceptance of the past, no matter how ugly. It must involve a resolution to move away from criminalizing people and creating a category of second class citizens within the United States. It must involve unitedly working towards a just and humane society, that treats all human beings as fellow sharers in the presence of God.
This is perhaps the most oft forgotten, yet important, fact when it comes to violence against body and soul: That we are all sharers in the presence of God, and in God's presence there is no room for fear, isolation, or despair.
