Censored 2014 (34 page)

Even the smallest of censorship incidents—those which affect a single classroom of middle school students or a modest public library branch—is a flash point for the most combustible issues in our culture and society today.

Last year, as the tide continued to turn on the debate over gay marriage, a number of children's books were censored because they spoke matter-of-factly about nontraditional families. Ironically, one of these books—
In Our Mothers' House
by Patricia Polacco—was selected for a school library specifically because some students in the school came from nontraditional families. In Erie, Illinois, another censored book,
The Family Book
by Todd Parr, was being used for a course on Tolerance, Diversity and Anti-Bullying.
And Then Came Tango,
a play about two male penguins raising an egg together, based on the frequently challenged children's book
And Tango Makes Three,
was set to be performed in Austin Public Schools, until a principal complained. The performance was canceled. “Elementary schools typically . . . do not delve into human sexuality, religion, or other politically hot topics,” the district's director of fine arts wrote by way of an explanation.

The written word is deeply affecting and enduringly powerful. That same power, which makes books like
Persepolis
or
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
so beloved, scares others. For a lonely student in a small town, grappling with physical abuse, or questioning his or her sexuality, books like
Bastard Out of Carolina, The Perks of Being a Wallflower,
or
Looking for Alaska
can be lifesaving. Many have tried to keep these books out of the hands of students, for the sake of that abstract concept: innocence. Yet ignorance is not innocence: the real damage is done by keeping students from getting the information they need and by indicating they should be ashamed to explore subjects like sex, depression, drugs and abuse.

In the firm belief that intellectual freedom is crucial to our development as well-rounded, socially engaged and empathetic human beings, the Kids' Right to Read project fights for young people's right to explore and grow by reading good books.

ACACIA O'CONNOR
is coordinator of the Kids' Right to Read Project, a coalition project of the National Coalition Against Censorship (
NCAC.org
). Her position with KRRP combines many of her passions, including but not limited to literature, libraries, language, and freedom of speech. Also an Italian translator, Acacia received her master's degree in literary translation studies from the University of Rochester.

THE LIBROTRAFICANTE OPPRESSION DETECTION KIT

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante

When Arizona legislators tried to erase our history, we decided to make more. When Arizona House Bill 2281 was used to ban Mexican American studies, we decided to take a stand. What started as
the Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle banned books back to Tucson has blossomed into a movement. In March of 2012, we organized six cities, smuggled over 1,000 books donated from all over the country, and opened four underground libraries.

The Librotraficante movement is the tip of the pyramid. It stands on the base created by its parent organization, Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, which I founded, to promote Latino literature and literacy in Houston, Texas, in 1998. In that time, we have worked with most of the authors whose work was banned by the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). The writings of our most beloved authors form the base of our movement.

Currently, Arizona HB 2281 has been used to make only our history illegal; however, these anti-intellectual laws, like Arizona's anti-immigration laws, will also spread. Although right now only Mexican American studies is outlawed, Arizona HB 2281 will pave the way to outlaw Asian studies and African American studies, not just in Arizona, but in other states. The end result would be disastrous: the dismantling of ethnic studies courses that have stemmed the drop out rate, an attack on critical thinking, and a trampling of the intellectual landscape of America.

We must not allow that to happen, and we are making some progress.

Texas Republican Senator Dan Patrick introduced Senate Bill 1128, and Texas Republican House of Representative Giovanni Capriglione introduced House Bill 1938 in spring of 2013. Last year we organized

the Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books banned in Arizona, back to Arizona, and this year we defended ethnic studies in our own back yard.

We formed a Texas-wide coalition that fought against HB 1938 and SB 1128, which would discredit ethnic studies at Texas state colleges and universities and effectively eliminate Mexican American, African American, and women's studies programs among others. Both bills are now dead.
⁴
We leave records of these struggles posted online as a testament to this stage of the civil rights movement of which we, and many others, are a part. Look for it sooner than later before the hackers strike, as the Librotraficante.com website regularly gets attacked.

In terms of the legacy of the current civil rights movement, I have no doubt that our brothers and sisters in Arizona will be victorious. The Librotraficante movement believes it would be a powerful example of poetic justice in democracy if the only Latina Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor could sign the majority opinion overturning Arizona HB 2811 signed into law by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, and used as the legal trigger to prohibit Mexican American studies in Arizona.
⁵

These tactics are straight out of the Arizona Republican Playbook. The far right's anti-immigrant movement is well known, and even addressed in the Republican Party's Growth and Opportunity Project.
⁶
However, they have not openly discussed, admitted to, or renounced the far right attack on ethnic studies. Here is an overview of some of the strategies used to attack ethnic studies indirectly.

1. Vague Laws
   
2. Code Words
   
3. Micromanaging Classrooms
   
4. Doughnut Hole Legislation
   
5. Bogus Reports
   
6. Denial
   

Vague Laws

The anti-ethnic studies bill is vague, successfully hiding that the target is Mexican American studies. Even as the Arizona Supreme Court condoned HB 2281, it was pointed out by one of the judges on
the case, A. Wallace Tashima, that the part of the law was so vague that it was unconstitutional. HB 2281 never even mentions Mexican American studies. Of course, once we are out of the way and our programs are terminated, the other ethnic studies shall fall, too, for the rules will be set to eliminate all other ethnic and women's studies, or to never implement them. This is also part of an attack on “critical thinking,” which the Texas 2012 Republican platform is very honest about.
⁷

Code Words

Here are some direct quotations taken from the 2012 Texas Republican platform that appear again and again and again in anti-ethnic studies legislation or are used to justify such bills.

“We believe the current teaching of a multicultural curriculum is
divisive.
We favor
strengthening our common American identity
and loyalty instead of political correctness that nurtures
alienation
among racial and ethnic groups. . . .

“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs . . .” (Emphasis added.)
⁸

Micromanaging Classrooms

Anti-ethnic studies policies strive to legislate the books we can put into students' hands. This was the case in Arizona and in Texas.

An editorial against HB 1938 and SB 1128 by the
San Antonio Express-News
put it best:

Doughnut Hole Legislation

Arizona Republicans fine-tuned the tactic of creating “doughnut hole legislation” to attack ethnic studies.
¹⁰
Teachers are the targets of the attack; rather than attacking them directly, though, laws are enacted to surround them and pressure them into compliance. Dan Patrick's SB 1128 is doughnut hole legislation, and the National Association of Scholars (NAS) report,
Recasting History: Are Race, Class, and Gender Dominating American History?,
revealed that professors are, indeed, the target.

The report stated: “We looked at the assigned readings for each course and the research interests of the forty-six faculty members who taught them. We also compared faculty members' research interests with the readings they chose to assign. . . . We classified faculty members assigning primarily high RCG [race, class, and gender] readings as ‘high assigners' of RCG materials.”
¹¹

Bogus Reports

House Bill 2811 was created to prohibit courses that promote the overthrow of the government? Who even worries about that? Besides, we already have a Sedition Act that prevents individuals from promoting the overthrow of the government. Why do we need a Sedition Act for academic courses? How do you even put a school course on trial? Oh, I guess you can't. Thus, the US Supreme Court will throw out that law, even though it might take another three to five years, and half a million to a million dollars.

Just as illogical, Texas's HB 1938 and SB 1128 were based on the aforementioned National Association of Scholars
Recasting History
report, which slammed professors for talking too much about race, class, and gender when discussing the following American classics like
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
and
César Chávez and La Causa
among others.
¹²

Denial

To this day, the far right Republican regime denies that books have been banned in Arizona. It will be up to the Supreme Court to
convince them of that. A press release from the Tucson Unified School District, posted on their website on January 17, 2012, denied that it had banned books, though it does admit that enforcers walked into classrooms during class time and, in front of our young, boxed up books by our most beloved authors.
¹³

And here is just one quote that is a testament to the doublespeak that George Orwell warned us about: “NONE of the above books have been banned by TUSD. Each book has been boxed and stored as part of the process of suspending the classes. The books listed above were cited in the ruling that found the classes out of compliance with state law.”
¹⁴

Likewise, in Texas, the Republican legislators who proposed HB 1938 and SB 1128 deny that they wanted to attack ethnic studies. I can't tell you what is in these legislators' hearts, but I can tell you what was in their bills. These bills would have led to the demise of ethnic studies. We must nip these oppressive laws in the bud, for it's much harder for them to be taken off the books once they're in place.

When asked what brought this issue to his attention, Rep. Capriglione did not refer to the NAS report, although the author and champions of the bill were sitting behind him and about to testify—authors who had so twisted their definition of censorship that they could so easily write a denial of our history into their report: “The kinds of courses that Librotraficante is concerned about will most likely, if the bill is passed, still continue to be offered at Texas public universities as electives. The only change would be that they would not count toward the state US history requirement in general education.”
¹⁵

Rep. Capriglione did, however, cite Jay Leno's “Jaywalking” segment as proof that Texas college students did not know enough about US history. If discrediting our history is not a big deal, then I suggest that Rep. Capriglione's Jaywalking comprehensive history course be an elective. We would at least get to see the content of the course, and could then get a better idea of what is in the minds, hearts, and imagi-nations of the far right.

During this whole period, no one ever showed us the “comprehensive American history course” that the Texan bills and the Republican legislators were advocating. However, they would have gone into effect in just four months, if the law had been passed.

HB 1938 would have taken US history back to 1938, before ethnic
studies existed. I'm so proud of everyone who stood up for critical thinking, ethnic studies, and intellectual freedom. We look forward to uniting with the broader community to protect intellectual freedom for all.

TONY DIAZ
, “El Librotraficante,” is a novelist and holds a master of fine arts in creative writing. He brings together contemporary Latino arts, culture, and business in ways that have transformed Houston, Texas, and the nation. He made national and international news in 2012 in his role as a leader of the Librotraficante movement, championing freedom of speech. Diaz is also cofounder of Protectors of the Dream, which awards grants and free legal representation to youth of the Dream Act movement. See more at
TonyDiaz.net
.

THE SPIN GAME: POLICE ATTEMPT TO HIDE INFILTRATION
OF ACTIVIST GROUPS
⁶

Beau Hodai

Infiltrate: verb [with object]
1. enter or gain access to (an organization, place, etc.) surreptitiously and
gradually, especially in order to acquire secret injormation: other areas of
the establishment were infiltrated by jascists; permeate or become a part
of (something) by infiltration: computing has infiltrated most projessions
now. Medicine (of a tumor, cells, etc.) spread into or invade (a tissue or
organ).
2. (of a liquid) permeate (something) by filtration: virtually no water
infiltrates deserts such as the Sahara; introduce (a liquid) into something
by filtration: lignocaine was infiltrated into the wound
.