Major Victory in the MAS Arizona Court Battle: You can read
the Judge's Decision Here
by
Angela Valenzuela
August 22, 2017*
We just made history again.
No small feat. I'm in tears.
This is a landmark, precedent-setting, victory for Ethnic Studies, public education, and civil rights. Kudos to Arizona Civil Rights attorney, Richard Martinez, who kept his eyes on the prize for so many years as the case was in process. It was a heavy lift. Gracias, Richard, for your kindness, friendship, and a great sense of humor that always lightened matters, as dead-serious as they were.
 |
| Judge Wallace Tashima |
I also give thanks to my students in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder whose major course assignment this past summer was on the court case itself. And to our UT students and faculty, too, who expressed concern and support throughout. And to our National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Tejas-Foco scholars, the community and moral backbone of the REST Coalition to which we belonged and that prevailed in its battle against a deeply-flawed and racist textbook that was up for adoption by the Texas State Board of Education. You can read and learn about it here from Dr. Emilio Zamora's concise recent history of yet another significant, hard-won cause.
Here in Austin, HABLA and the Raza Rountable, are always present and informed. And to Nuestro Grupo, our community-based organization that carries out the activities of Academia Cuauhtli, our cherished Saturday school at the Mexican American Culture Center in partnership with the Austin Independent School District and the City of Austin. It touches me deeply to have our escuelita, our school, as part of the record in this historic milestone for all of our communities, and community-based, educational efforts.
My husband, Dr. Emilio Zamora, and my beautiful family also deserve a "high five" or two for their confidence in me and their loving support over the many, many months of this fight, this lucha, with the state of Arizona. At the end of the day, it was the "arbiters of empire," of this racist state—specifically Tom Horne and John Huppenthal—that had actually picked this fight to serve their own ends at the community's expense. No surprise, huh?
Beware the racist bullies that assume leadership—not because they really want to lead people earnestly. They have other motivations instead that have gotten us to where we are now with the Alt-Right, neo-Nazi, KKK, neo-Confederate attempted seizures of presence, voice, and power. What they never understand is that their own hubris is always their downfall. It gets them every time. Well, almost...
I am dead-serious here. Boy, could each of them have highly benefited from an Ethnic Studies or Women and Gender Studies course, set of courses, major, or minor in college! Think about it. A little bit of cultural literacy can go a long way.
How we struggle—hopefully, all with integrity, a good spirit and intention—matters every bit as much as what gets accomplished. This case will be studied, analyzed, and theorized for years far into the future, no doubt. My words are from the heart. And my heart is in a very good place right now.
The team from New York, the Weil, Gotshal & Manges law firm, was amazing. It was an experience spending a fair amount of time in the “war room” with the many attorneys and their excellent staff. Luna Barrington, you are the best! Thank you for your hard work and commitment to this case. And thanks to your colleagues in Weil, especially Steven Reiss, for taking this on pro bono because they grasped its importance. Thanks, as well, to Dr. Bob Chang, Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at the Seattle University School of Law. For additional helpful resources, view this link to learn more about the Korematsu Center, what occurred on appeal, including links to pertinent briefs, including 6 amicus briefs and trial transcripts.
I loved the energy, passion, and synergy.
I loved the energy, passion, and synergy.
How it all ended up taking form and getting executed was nothing short of awe-inspiring. It’s also rather uncanny that the Judge’s decision came out on the day immediately following the solar eclipse, as well as contemporaneous with Trump’s visit to Phoenix. The universe surely has something to tell us....
For the Mexica (Aztecs)—and perhaps other indigenous people—the August 21st eclipse of the sun signifies a re-birth, a new beginning. Hence, a cosmic coupling of the sun and the moon, "el sol y la luna," as they are affectionately termed in Spanish and widely recognized as powerful symbols in much indigenous art and iconography. I see, and want to see, all of this as a new beginning. From an opprobrious darkness into the light of a liberated educational praxis. After all, this is a re-birth! Renacimiento! Ometeotl!
As an insider to this case, as one of three expert witnesses (Drs. Nolan Cabrera & Stephen Pitti were the other two), I cannot express how happy I am for the TUSD- MAS teachers, students, parents, families, and community. It shouldn’t be so damn hard to get a great, community-anchored, culturally relevant, social justice, college-preparatory education in this country.
In any case, this is mostly their sacrifice and victory today! I was nevertheless humbled and honored to have been chosen to accompany them on this long, legal, and political journey to claim their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights and to set the record straight. I turn now to address them directly.
***
To our familia, friends, parents, and advocacy community in Tucson and Arizona, generally, Felicidades! Congratulations!
Thank you for your intelligence, passion, love, and vision to start an MAS program to begin with. It quickly grew into a robust and highly successful Ethnic Studies program of all major ethnic and racial groups in TUSD in numerous schools at different grade levels and were inclusive of all groups. And then when it was dismantled, you filed suit. Your children, parents, families, and communities then had to take it on the chin and it was brutal and traumatizing. But you went the distance and carried yourselves with such poise and strength throughout—even if your own relations sometimes suffered, as a consequence.
Such are the poisonous effects of discrimination and the abject denial of rights.
It’s time to heal and repair, to take a break, relieve your minds and re-connect to self, family, and community. Once centered, next steps will become obvious. And do keep me posted!
For now, enjoy, celebrate, and cry. Someday, Ethnic Studies will not only equate to "a good education," but also one of its core aspects of what it can and should be—and actually, what it should have been to begin with a long time ago. That said, you have to start somewhere. And this is an awesome, new beginning—not just for yourselves, but for an entire nation!
Muy bien hecho! Great job! In deep admiration of all of you. We love you so much! Los queremos mucho! Ha sido un honor muy grande para mi ser parte de esta historia tan importante y impresionante. Muchísimas gracias!
Angela Valenzuela
*Updated 8.23.17
Judge: Racism behind Arizona ban on Mexican-American studies
Racism was behind an Arizona ban on ethnic studies that shuttered a popular Mexican-American Studies program, a federal judge said Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima found that the state enacted the ban with discriminatory intent.
He had previously upheld most of the law in a civil lawsuit filed by students in the Tucson Unified School District, but a federal appeals court, while upholding most of his ruling, sent the case back to trial to determine if the ban was enacted with racist intent.
The new trial was held in July.
The law prohibits courses that promote resentment toward a race or a class of people or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of treating people as individuals.
A portion of the law that banned courses designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group was struck down.
Tashima said in the ruling Tuesday that the state violated student's constitutional rights "because both enactment and enforcement were motivated by racial animus."
However, Tashima said he doesn't know a remedy for the violation and has not issued a final judgment.
Plaintiffs' attorneys hoped he would throw out the law, which was enacted in 2010, the same year Arizona approved its landmark immigration law known as SB1070.
Tucson Unified School District dismantled its program in 2012 to avoid losing state funding. The district has not said whether it would bring the program back if the law is thrown out.
Tom Horne, former state attorney general and former leader of Arizona's public schools, testified in July that he was troubled by what he described as radical instructors teaching students to be disruptive. But he insisted he targeted all ethnic studies programs equally.
Students in the Tucson district, which offered the Mexican-American courses, launched protests and sued.
Horne drafted the law as superintendent of public schools and later defended it as state attorney general.
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