Anti-intellectualism is taking over the US

[Lars77]

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.

In fact, 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.

Read more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/18/anti-intellectualism-us-book-banning?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038

[2on2u]

1. We are only allowed to overthrow other peoples' governments, always

been that way, always will be.

[Plucketeer]

3. Are you kidding???

Overthrowing other governments is our #1 industry! Can you imagine the jump in unemployment if we ceased and desisted doing so? Our economy would look like this: ->

[2on2u]

4. Engage corporate drive, disengage conscience, full speed ahead for

better or worse. Too bad the people who start them don't have to finish them.... or even play a supporting role, of course I am referring to our cottage industry chickenhawks are us.

[Plucketeer]

6. Roger that!

And we've got this marvelous "All-Volunteer Army" thanks to kids that can't find work elsewheres. Keeps kids like Romneys and other prominent names away from danger.

[Fumesucker]

2. I disagree..

It happened no later than 1980..

[Confusious]

5. The book sounds like crap

Postmodernist verbal diarrhea. ( what postmodernist writing isn't? )

"What is most arresting about critical race theory is that...it turns its back on the Western tradition of rational inquiry, forswearing analysis for narrative. Rather than marshal logical arguments and empirical data, critical race theorists tell stories — fictional, science-fictional, quasi-fictional, autobiographical, anecdotal—designed to expose the pervasive and debilitating racism of America today. By repudiating reasoned argumentation, the storytellers reinforce stereotypes about the intellectual capacities of nonwhites."

"The radical multiculturalists' views raise insuperable barriers to mutual understanding. Consider the Space Traders story. How does one have a meaningful dialogue with Derrick Bell? Because his thesis is utterly untestable, one quickly reaches a dead end after either accepting or rejecting his assertion that white Americans would cheerfully sell all blacks to the aliens. The story is also a poke in the eye of American Jews, particularly those who risked life and limb by actively participating in the civil rights protests of the 1960s. Bell clearly implies that this was done out of tawdry self-interest. Perhaps most galling is Bell's insensitivity in making the symbol of Jewish hypocrisy the little girl who perished in the Holocaust—as close to a saint as Jews have. A Jewish professor who invoked the name of Rosa Parks so derisively would be bitterly condemned—and rightly so."

"Critical race theorists attack the very foundations of the [classical] liberal legal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism and neutral principles of constitutional law. These liberal values, they allege, have no enduring basis in principles, but are mere social constructs calculated to legitimate white supremacy. The rule of law, according to critical race theorists, is a false promise of principled government, and they have lost patience with false promises."


Not that I agree with it being banned however.

[Yavin4]

7. We're Becoming Regressive As A Nation Because the Economic Elite Panders to the Regressives

They pander because the regressives will vote against for the economic agenda of the economic elites. It's very short sighted because even they would suffer in a regressive nation.

[James48]

8. Well, now I know what I'm doing this summer...

I hope I have time to read all those books. That's a huge list to try and get through in just one summer.....

[daaron]

9. Read something by each of those authors except,

Acuna, Takaki, Skolnick. Shouldn't be a problem to read 'em over the summer. I'm in.

How long can this vast divide between the brainless and the brainy last?

[intheflow]

10. IS taking over the US?

HAS taken over, more like. It's been downhill since Reagan. Apparently people are just waking up to it now.