FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May
30, 2018
Title: Press
Conference, PROTEST THE NAME CHANGE/KEEP MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES
Where:
Raul
Salinas Room, Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center
Note: Don’t pay for public parking. Go inside to the ESB-MACC office and get a parking pass that you can slip into the dash of your car.
When: TOMORROW, Wednesday, May 30, 2018 at 1:30 pm
Contact:
Emilio
Zamora, 512 739-0168
Greg
Pulte, 469 831-0408
The
K-12 Committee of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies,
Tejas Foco (Chapter) is sponsoring press conferences in six cities tomorrow
(Wednesday, May 30) on the State Board of Education and its vote to change the
name of the Mexican American Studies course. One of these press
conferences will be held in Austin.
K-12
Committee members want to bring attention to the decision by the State Board of
Education to change the name of a Mexican American Studies course for our
public schools to Ethnic Studies: An Overview of Americans of Mexican
Descent. We also want to invite people to show up for the June 12 Board
meeting. During this board meeting, we will protest the name
change. We will also be calling for the adoption of a Women and Gender
Studies course and the creation of a resource center that would include
curricular materials for teachers wishing to teach Mexican American Studies, as
well as other fields of study.
Background
On Friday, April 13, 2018, the
Texas State Board of Education (TXSBOE) approved Texas Essential Skills and
Knowledge (TEKS) standards for a Mexican American Studies (MAS) elective course
for high school students. This is the first time in Texas and U.S. history that
a state board of education approved a MAS course. The TXSBOE also voted to open
the process to create other Ethnic Studies courses, including Native American
Studies, African American Studies, Latino Studies, and Asian/Pacific Islander
Studies.
The TXSBOE vote to approve this
MAS course should have been an historic accomplishment. The vote, however, was
offensive and unacceptable. We demand
that the TXSBOE change the name of the course back to its original title,
Mexican American Studies, for the following reasons:
1.
The course approved by the TXSBOE modeled itself after the Innovative
course that the Houston Independent School District adopted with the consent of
the Texas Education Agency. Its title, Mexican American Studies, reflects the
Mexican American Studies declared course content and purpose;
2.
Mexican American Studies is an established Field of Study in Texas as
authorized by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the higher education
counterpart to the TXSBOE. One of the main purposes of this designation is to
align the curriculum across the educational pipeline and to grant the courses
the necessary transferability from the high schools to the community colleges
and universities. Naming the course Mexican American Studies conforms with the
name of the field of study and policy of the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board, and the logic of alignment and transferability;
3.
The stated reasons for changing the Mexican American Studies title are
ahistorical and misleading. The term Mexican American is not divisive or
biased. Mexican American has been the most popular English language
self-referent since the early 1900s and the typical way to refer to
Mexican-origin persons in the U.S. It affirms an American identity and national
allegiance at the same time that it claims a Mexican ancestry. The term is no
different from others, such as African Americans, Italian Americans, and Native
Americans. Lastly, the use of the term Mexican expands the cultural meaning of American.
4.
Mexican Americans, as Indigenous people to this continent of America
and an ethnic/racial minority in the U.S., have the right to
self-identification. This right to name oneself at the individual and
collective level is protected by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples, specifically the Declaration on the Rights of Persons
Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. Mexican
Americans have the right to tell their own stories, and those that have been
written in their name, including the vast body of scholarly literature that
uses the term Mexican American to describe their work and the courses that high
school, college and university instructors are currently teaching;
5.
The large number of Mexican Americans in Texas public schools call for
the designation of Mexican American Studies. Mexican Americans and other Latinx
students comprise 52% of the almost
5.4 million students in Texas schools Pre-K-12, and this will grow to almost
70% by 2050;
6.
The title Mexican American Studies conforms with Mexican American
Studies courses that Texas school districts have already adopted (some of which
have been approved or allowed by the TXSBOE), as well as Social Studies, Texas
and U.S. history courses that emphasize Mexican American history and
contemporary experiences. In addition, the TXSBOE and Texas Education Agency
have approved course content in Mexican American Studies since, at least, the
1980s, and called for textbooks in Mexican American Studies with Proclamations
2016 and 2018;
7.
In singling out the name change for this Mexican American Studies
course, the TXSBOE has created a glaring inconsistency with the other endorsed
courses included in the vote: Native American Studies, African American
Studies, Latino Studies and Asian/Pacific Islander Studies; and
8.
The word "Overview" in the name change calls for a cursory
treatment and not an in-depth examination of the subject, in contradiction with
the broad purpose and content of this course. In addition, Mexican
Americans/Chicanxs do not identify with the term “Americans of Mexican
Descent.” It is a throwback to the 1950s Jim Crow era of segregation when Texas
school officials disparaged the racial and ethnic makeup of Black and Brown youth.
In light of the renaming action
by the TXSBOE, and all the reasons stated above, our questions for the nine
Anglo Republicans and one Latina Democrat who voted for this name change are:
What are the real reasons that you voted for this name change? Is it true, as
board member Bradley stated to the press, that the TXSBOE would have never
voted for the approval of this MAS course if the name had not been changed? And
if so, why not? Who gave the very partisan TXSBOE the right to change the name
of an entire and significant ethnic group of people in Texas and the U.S.? Why was Mexican American Studies singled out?
Does this constitute outright discrimination, or conscious/unconscious
political bias?
Mexican Americans, and the
diverse students of all colors and ethnicities in Texas public schools have the
right to learn and understand the many positive contributions Mexican Americans
and other ethnic groups have made to Texas and American history.
The National Association for
Chicana and Chicano Studies Tejas Foco Committee on Mexican American Studies
Pre-K-12 has been working tirelessly over the last five years to advance
Mexican American and other Ethnic Studies in Texas schools with significantly
positive and historic results. The recent decision by the TXSBOE to misname
this Mexican American Studies course represents another obstacle to our work,
and a hindrance to learning in our schools. We are committed to opposing this
name change until the TXSBOE adopts the original title of this course: Mexican
American Studies.
Postscript
This NACCS Tejas
Statement will be presented to the elected members of the Texas State Board of
Education at their next meeting on Tuesday, June 12, 2018 at the William B.
Travis Building (1701 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701). A "Protest the
Name Change Press Conference & Rally" will precede the board meeting
from 8:30-9:30am. The public is invited to attend the Rally and to testify
before the board.
