Some of them are members of Union Del Barrio, an organization from which I derive great inspiration. That these brothers and sisters can speak the truth AND WIN ELECTIONS is a great beacon of hope for me.

Congratulations!

The Social Justice Education Project (SJEP) and our Critically Compassionate Intellectualism model have and are showing profound effects on academic success, graduation rates, and participation in post-secondary education. Evaluation already in place determined the following information for the students who participated in the program.

Comparing the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) pass rates over six academic years (2004 to 2009) for SJEP students and non-SJEP students who failed the AIMS their sophomore year, we have found significant differences among these same students and their junior year (SJEP year one) performance on the AIMS exam:

       ♦SJEP students passed at the rates of 68% (reading), 76% (writing), and 54% (math).

       ♦Non-SJEP students passed at the rates of 23% (reading), 17% (writing), and 21% (math).

The data reveals that SJEP students are:

♦3 x more likely to pass the reading portions than their non-SJEP peers.

♦4 x more likely to pass the writing portions than their non-SJEP peers.

♦2.5 x more likely to pass the math portions than their non-SJEP peers.

Student surveys indicate:

        Almost all SJEP students agree that the SJEP has better prepared them for college and that

        working on their projects has helped them believe that they have something worthwhile to

        contribute to society (97% and 98% respectively).

The SJEP shows great impact on the post-secondary participation of our graduates:

      ♦67% of SJEP students enroll in post-secondary education when they graduated high

        school. This is 179% greater than the national average of 24% for Mexican American

        students.

SJEP students explain how the program transformed their perceptions of themselves and the world:

      ♦”[SJEP] made me realize what everything is and who I am…It just gives

   you power to do better for yourself — to keep learning, want to keep doing things.”

      ♦“I love the project, it was great, and it helped me feel smarter … and the project gave the   

          idea that I could help my community; and that is what I am going to do with my life.”

Social Justice Education Project

Tucson Unified School District &

The University of Arizona

The immigration law was adopted around the same time as the enactment of a law prohibiting Arizona school programs that “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” or that “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

The state superintendent of schools, the primary state official who promoted this legislation, has repeatedly stated that the law is aimed at eradicating particular existing ethnic studies programs that provide instruction featuring the history, social dynamics, and cultural patterns of Mexican-Americans in the United States.

The independent experts noted that “such law and attitude are at odds with the State’s responsibility to respect the right of everyone to have access to his or her own cultural and linguistic heritage and to participate in cultural life. Everyone has the right to seek and develop cultural knowledge and to know and understand his or her own culture and that of others through education and information.”

The Raza Studies ban boils down to disenfranchisement. One of the few, lasting, semi-independent institutions which came out of the Chicano Movement was Mexican American Studies. The ban is couched in cultural and curricular terms, but Mexican American Studies Departments play a real role in offering institutional empowerment to our community.

Most importantly, it is one of the few, if not the only, institutions which is not primarily beholden to corporate or Zionist interests.  Heretofore, these institutions have had great latitude with their choice of curriculum and points of views, as academic freedom has been falsely touted as a great North American value.

Apart from the controversy surrounding the curriculum, though, they have provided the mechanics, at times physical mechanics via bus rides, to promote upward mobility and education amongst Latinos.  They have often provided the means for both by offering scholarship opportunities.  Once in university, they have even provided retention services to a segment of the student population which often feels isolated.

Most people in the know would not seriously accuse Raza Studies Departments of fomenting revolution. In fact, Raza Studies have been meritoriously criticized by the far left, indigenistas and feministas among us for not going far enough in certain areas.   They have even been criticized for creating for and delivering to the gringo a co-opted class, a “power” which is now being threatened by the Arizona law.

It is true that Raza Studies generally have provided access and has even required the reading of material which point to revolutionary and nationalists movements which deny the legitimacy of the US, and which have even risen violently against the US.  These movements include, the Cortina and Murrieta uprisings, El Plan De San Diego, the Tijerina Reactions, and La Raza Unida Party.  The reading and analysis of this “material” is usually known as “history” and “political science.”

In the context of the Arizona law, however, this course of study is considered an ethnic solidarity class and a course of study which stirs up resentment. It may very well be true that finding a common strain of oppression among our people stirs up solidarity and resentment. Truth is funny like that. It does things and moves people.

The truth is that some people DO believe that Latinos are oppressed by the gringo. Many scholars believe this in many different shades of gray, even though many people standing up for Raza Studies tend to deny this when they get on camera. Raza studies DOES give these voices an audience, as it should. Academia is about considering different viewpoints, and I know I sure learned the gringo’s viewpoint in my Texas history class.  So we should be allowed the opportunity to learn that some scholars refer to this land as “Occupied America,” as Rudy Acuna’s book calls the Southwest.

The greatest irony about the whole situation is that the gringo’s fear of the resentment that his history might cause is threatening the institutional mechanics that Raza studies offers regardless of one’s ideology. In essence, he is scared of his own shadow. 

Raza-studies departments help all people that come through its doors. They don’t do an ideology check before admitting someone to its library or helping to enroll someone at college day. These mechanics are ideologically neutral, which even many conservative Hispanics would recognize as beneficial to all. 

Despite all of the teaching of “Occupied America” by Raza Studies, I believe that the mechanics provided by Raza Studies DO produce the co-opted class that I mentioned earlier, not by design, but by default.  I do not mean to disparage the excellent, progressive work of Raza Studies in the least bit.  I only mean to comment on the overwhelming odds that all progressives face.  The social forces in the greater society does not permit one university department to undo all of the brainwashing to which people are subject in this system.  Generally, Raza Studies helps a great deal of people arrive and stay in university, and only a miniscule fraction of these people are re-socialized into a revolutionary, indigenist, leftist or nationalist.  Even a smaller fraction become so due to their dealings with the Raza Studies department. 

And this is where I find irony and folly in the gringo’s ethnic studies ban in Arizona.  If Arizona removes the mechanism for creating a co-opted class of people, what outlet will the upwardly aspiring have other than to listen to ideas like mine: nationalist, leftist and separatist-inspired rantings otherwise known as the truth? ;) After living through the Black Power and Chicano Movements, when 100 cities went up in flames after MLK was shot, and when Tijerina arrested some federal officials for violating land grants, the gringo generally learned that it was better for him to co-opt than to segregate.  If the gringo is unsure to where the upwardly-aspiring class might turn, perhaps he should consult with Flugencio Batista, who was forced from office by a frustrated attorney-turned-repressed-electoral candidate (Fidel) and a doctor (Che).

This is not an endorsement of the Raza Studies ban by any means.  It is only an attempt to find any small advantage in a grim situation.  If the gringo seals off the pressure-release valve, he is setting himself up for an explosion.

From Our San Anto Correspondent Pedro Ruiz

What has a society become, if it is forced to militarily occupy its own community to “control” the youth? A police state.

I thought I’d just post the CNN file, so that you’d believe me.

“If you have a trip planned here or do business with an Arizona-based company, cancel it.  The boycott is the only thing that we have left” for the short run, she said.

In the meantime, activists like Andrew Sanchez, who I interviewed when he came through Houston, have been sleeping in front of the state capitol in order to have a physical reminder of the opposition to this law.

More information and interviews as they become available. Check out Isabel Garcia on Democracy Now. She is calling for an end to immigration enforcement, a position that I endorsed last year. Listen to the entire interview. She calls out the “power brokers” that manipulated the 2006 marches.