From: Janeyolen <janeyolen_at_aol.com>
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:48:32 -0500 (EST)

I thought in fact my book was NOT in fact in the list. (12 Impossible Thin gs Before Breakfast) As it is a middle grade group of fantasy stories with little or no political content, I am confused as to why it should have been boxed up with the important books. Other researchers have told me it was N OT taken of the shelves. Are you certain?

Jane


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From: Debbie Reese To: CCBC-Net Network Sent: Wed, Feb 1, 2012 6:17 am Subject:
 Yolen, Zinn, hook, Baldwin banned/boxed up in Tucson/Te ach-In Link

Good morning,

Below is the list of over 50 books that were banned/boxed up in Tucson. How ard Zinn is on it. So is James Baldwin, and Jane Yolen, and bell hooks.

There are links to this list on many different websites (the Nation, Huffin gton Post), but as of this morning, the hits to the page is only 5,732.

That strikes me as far too low for a country that has so many progressive, activist, multiculturalist leaders and readers. I'm trying to make sense of it. Is it plain apathy? Maybe people are just worn out from so many other assaults on them personally due to the economy? Or maybe it is Arizona... t oo geographically distant to worry about? Maybe people are too busy when th ey come across the link to the list.

According to teachers in the Mexican American Studies Department, any books mentioned in the Cambium Audit or in the Kowal findings was boxed up as ev idence that the MAS program was in violation of the ethnic studies law in A rizona that says a program may not

1) promote the overthrow of the US government

2) promote resentment to a race or class of people (as I understand it, "cl ass" refers to socioeconomic status)

3) being designed primarily for one ethnic group,

4) advocating ethnic solidarity instead of treating pupils as individuals

In the hearing before Administrative Law Judge Lewis D. Kowal, the State of Arizona had Sandra Stotsky as its expert witness. The findings say:

"Dr. Stotsky opined that the MAS materials she reviewed identified Latinos as the oppressed and "Whites" as the oppressor, and were designed to arouse emotion in the Latinos."

Matt de la Pena's MEXICAN WHITEBOY is noted in the findings in the section about what is taught. There's no comment on the finding itself and I can't find (yet) the actual testimony where it was referenced.

Publicly, the Tucson Unified School District issued a statement saying only 7 books and the contents of a file cabinet were removed, but teachers say otherwise. And, they are being monitored to make sure that they don't say a nything or tie anything to "a Mexican American perspective." They say ther e are copies of the books in the libraries and students are free to reach t hem if they want to. And, they say the books aren't banned, they're just be ing boxed up because the courses they were used in are no longer being taug ht, so the books aren't needed.

Here's a link to the National Teach In site. Please go there, and plan some action this month. I don't mean to sound melodramatic, but I never would h ave thought that a state would pass a law like that in this day and time, a nd that such a law would be enforced as it was in Tucson. Perhaps I am naiv e. Maybe the foreign press is correct. We are far less progressive than we like to think we are.

Please forward this email to teachers and community organizers.

Thanks, Debbie


__________________



No History is Illegal

Book list:

High School Course Texts and Reading Lists Table 20: American Government/So cial Justice Education Project 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peters on The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (1998), by R. Delgado and J. Stefan cic Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (2001), by R. Delgado and J. Stefanci c Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2000), by P. Freire United States Government: Democracy in Action (2007), by R. C. Remy Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1990), by H. Zinn

Table 21: American History/Mexican American Perspectives, 1, 2 - Texts and Reading Lists

Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (2004), by R. Acuna The Anaya Reader (1995), by R. Anaya The American Vision (2008), by J. Appleby et el. Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peters on Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A. Burciaga Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (1997), by C. Jiminez De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views Multi-Colored Century (1998), by E . S. Martinez 500 Anos Del Pueblo Chicano/500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures (1990) , by E. S. Martinez Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human (1998), by R. Rodriguez The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (2003), by H. Zinn

Course: English/Latino Literature 7, 8

Ten Little Indians (2004), by S. Alexie The Fire Next Time (1990), by J. Baldwin Loverboys (2008), by A. Castillo Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros Mexican WhiteBoy (2008), by M. de la Pena Drown (1997), by J. Diaz Woodcuts of Women (2000), by D. Gilb At the Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria (1965), by E. Guevara Color Lines: "Does Anti-War Have to Be Anti-Racist Too?" (2003), by E. Mart inez Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy (1998), by R. Montoya e t al. Let Their Spirits Dance (2003) by S. Pope Duarte Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz (1997), by M. Ruiz The Tempest (1994), by W. Shakespeare A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993), by R. Takaki The Devil's Highway (2004), by L. A. Urrea Puro Teatro: A Latino Anthology (1999), by A. Sandoval-Sanchez & N. Saporta Sternbach Twelve Impossible Things before Breakfast: Stories (1997), by J. Yolen Voices of a People's History of the United States (2004), by H. Zinn

Course: English/Latino Literature 5, 6

Live from Death Row (1996), by J. Abu-Jamal The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1994), by S. Alexie Zorro (2005), by I. Allende Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1999), by G. Anzaldua A Place to Stand (2002), by J. S. Baca C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans (2002), by J. S. Baca Healing Earthquakes: Poems (2001), by J. S. Baca Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems (1990), by J. S. Baca Black Mesa Poems (1989), by J. S. Baca Martin & Mediations on the South Valley (1987), by J. S. Baca The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America's Public S chools (19950, by D. C. Berliner and B. J. Biddle Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A Burciaga Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United Stat es (2005), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States (1995 ), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos So Far From God (1993), by A. Castillo Address to the Commonwealth Club of California (1985), by C. E. Chavez Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros House on Mango Street (1991), by S. Cisneros Drown (1997), by J. Diaz Suffer Smoke (2001), by E. Diaz Bjorkquist Zapata's Discipline: Essays (1998), by M. Espada Like Water for Chocolate (1995), by L. Esquievel When Living was a Labor Camp (2000), by D. Garcia La Llorona: Our Lady of Deformities (2000), by R. Garcia Cantos Al Sexto Sol: An Anthology of Aztlanahuac Writing (2003), by C. Garc ia-Camarilo, et al. The Magic of Blood (1994), by D. Gilb Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (2001), by Rudolfo "Corky" Gonzales Saving Our Schools: The Case for Public Education, Saying No to "No Child L eft Behind" (2004) by Goodman, et al. Feminism is for Everybody (2000), by b hooks The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (1999), by F. Jimenez Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools (1991), by J. Kozol Zigzagger (2003), by M. Munoz Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (1993), by T. D. Reb olledo & E. S. Rivero ...y no se l o trago la tierra/And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (1995), by T . Rivera Always Running - La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (2005), by L. Rodriguez Justice: A Question of Race (1997), by R. Rodriguez The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez Crisis in American Institutions (2006), by S. H. Skolnick & E. Currie Los Tucsonenses: The Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941 (1986), by T. S heridan Curandera (1993), by Carmen Tafolla Mexican American Literature (1990), by C. M. Tatum New Chicana/Chicano Writing (1993), by C. M. Tatum Civil Disobedience (1993), by H. D. Thoreau By the Lake of Sleeping Children (1996), by L. A. Urrea Nobody's Son: Notes from an American Life (2002), by L. A. Urrea Zoot Suit and Other Plays (1992), by L. Valdez Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert (1995), by O. Zepeda


__________________________________________________________

Debbie Reese, PhD Tribally enrolled: Nambe Pueblo

Email: dreese.nambe_at_gmail.com

Website: American Indians in Children's Literature _at_ http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.net

Now: Studying for MLIS at San Jose State University Then: Assistant Professor in American Indian Studies, University of Illinoi s

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Received on Wed 01 Feb 2012 06:48:32 AM CST