Mexican-American textbook stirs cultural debate in Texas

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Mexican-American textbook stirs cultural debate in Texas

Updated 4:55 pm, Monday, May 23, 2016

HOUSTON (AP) — A textbook proposed to help teach the cultural history of Mexican-Americans in Texas public schools is under scrutiny by scholars, some of whom decry the effort as racist and not a reflection of serious academic study.

The textbook, titled "Mexican American Heritage," describes Mexican-Americans as people who "adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society." It also links Mexican-Americans to undocumented immigrants, saying illegal immigration has "caused a number of economic and security problems" in the U.S. that include "poverty, drugs, crime, non-assimilation, and exploitation"

The State Board of Education voted to include textbooks on Mexican-American studies after activists last year demanded the subject be formally included in state curriculum. "Mexican American Heritage" is the first textbook on the subject included in a list of proposed instructional materials.

"Paradoxically, we pressed for the board to include texts on Mexican-American studies, and we achieved it, but not in the way we were expecting," Tony Diaz, host of Nuestra Palabra (Our Word) radio program in Houston and director of Intercultural Initiatives at Lone Star College-North Harris, told the Houston Chronicle (http://bit.ly/244zWSq ). "Instead of a text that is respectful of the Mexican-American history, we have a book poorly written, racist, and prepared by non-experts."



Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Mexican-American-textbook-incites-controversy-7940076.php

[callous taoboy]

1. Does Mr. Diaz not know what body he is dealing with?

The Texas SBOE is the most backwards, reactionary, homophobic, racist, white bread body on this Earth! There is not a finer dollop of traditional white speck on the top of chicken shit in the entire nation. They are a vile body. They seem to crawl out of the darkest places in Texas as the product of various swamp gasses. They aren't comfortable around anybody else's B.O. but their own body's B.O. I find it rather reckless that Mr. Diaz would turn over any work requiring sensitivity, nuance and balance to this pack of jackals high on the stank of pure white man thought.

[dembotoz]

6. lets ask the klan to do a textbook on black history

sounds about the same....

[AntiBank]

2. Proposed Mexican-American Studies Textbook: Chicanos Want to ‘Destroy This Society’

https://www.texasobserver.org/mexican-american-studies-textbook-dunbar/

Mexican American Heritage, which features an Aztec dancer on the cover and is apparently the first title from a publisher called Momentum Instruction. The publisher doesn’t have much of a presence online beyond a website registered in November. Though its authors, Jaime Riddle and Valarie Angle, don’t appear to have much experience in publishing (their bios aren’t included with the book), at least one of the book’s contributors will be very familiar to followers of Texas politics.

Cynthia Dunbar was a member of the SBOE from 2007 to 2010, in the thick of the debate over social studies standards that cemented the board’s stoogish reputation and steeped yet another generation of Texas schoolchildren in a retrograde sense of history. “No one can read the history of our country without realizing that the Good Book and the spirit of the savior have from the beginning been our guiding geniuses,” she said in 2010, during her opening prayer for a board meeting. Dunbar’s appointee to a panel of expert reviewers recommended removing Cesar Chavez from the standards altogether.

So, it’s fair to say that Dunbar’s time on the board did not reflect a great interest in Mexican-American history. She did have some notable publishing experience on the board, though. Her 2008 volume One Nation Under God — which was released while she was on the State Board of Education — called public schooling a “tyrannical” and a “subtly deceptive tool of perversion.” The book’s back cover bears a call to action: “America needs people who know the truth, speak the truth and stand for the truth. Unfortunately, many of us are simply not aware of the clear constitutional and biblical principles that initiated and governed the course of this union.”

That might be helpful background for understanding this passage on page 136 of Mexican American Heritage, which devotes a sidebar to defining “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,” which “anchored the moral philosophy of the nation” as:

A foundational premise prescribing that nature encompasses certain laws, obligations, and reasoning that align with Biblical laws and rules by which humans should maintain a certain respect and reverence, first referenced by Lord Bolingbrook [sic] and then his former student Thomas Jefferson.

The following line also fills space on that page: “The early U.S. republic was not perfect. There were major issues such as slavery which had to be dealt with.”

Dan Quinn with the Texas Freedom Network, which follows state board politics and organizes textbook reviews, said he did a double-take when he saw Dunbar’s name in the book. The passage on the Bible’s influence on American history, though, suggests one reason she might’ve been drawn to the subject. “It’s just another way for her to push her own particular ideology in Texas classrooms,” he said.


snip


here is the book itself

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=51539608161

[Ash_F]

3. That's my state!

[uhnope]

4. DUers, can someone help me to find a way to actually see this textbook?

I'd like to see the pages, see the (horrible-sounding) quotes in context. I would appreciate any help from someone who might know how to get a glimpse of the actual pages. Kindle version or something?

[Nitram]

5. This one has the same title but it sounds like a legitimate textbook.

The Mexican American Heritage by Carlos M. Jimenez
http://www.amazon.com/Mexican-American-Heritage-Carlos-Jimenez/dp/0892290293/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464098297&sr=1-3&keywords=Mexican+American+Heritage

Or you could try this to get a taste of Dunbar's style and slant.

One Nation Under God: How the Left is Trying to Erase What Made us Great by Cynthia Dunbar
http://www.amazon.com/One-Nation-Under-God-Trying/dp/0979322723/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464098654&sr=1-1&keywords=cynthia+dunbar

[Person 2713]

7. Disgusting so they used the ethnic studies to teach white students lies for hate

[uhnope]

8. bad headline & misleading article, really. This book was only proposed and is already being rejected

The book "is not a text that we have recommended nor we will be recommending," says Douglas Torres-Edwards, coordinator of a TEA-approved Mexican-American studies course that has been implemented in some Houston Independent School District schools. "Frankly, that author is not recognized as someone who is part of the Mexican-American studies scholarship and most individuals engaged in scholarship will not recognize her as an author."

[alp227]

9. Non paywalled link to original Houston Chron article

Mexican American textbook incites controversy