by Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano May 18, 2010 01:31 PM (PT) Topics: Civil Rights, Immigration, Multiculturalism, racism
Regardless of where you stand on Arizona’s SB1070 (which legalizes racial profiling) and HB2281 (which bans ethnic studies in public schools), you’ve likely heard about the backlash against such laws. As I've previously written, opponents are pushing for mass state boycotts, while others plan to descend on Arizona to protest.
In all these efforts, most of us enjoy the sense of being part of a group. Few of us are standing physically alone — before, for example, an anti-immigrant audience — while carrying the weight of an entire movement and people on our shoulders.
But Dr. Sandra Soto, professor at the University of Arizona, is one such person. While delivering the convocation address at the University of Arizona’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences graduation ceremony this year, Dr. Soto publicly criticized Arizona’s anti-immigrant SB1070 and anti-people of color HB2281. This speech evoked immediate, roaring protest from the crowd, subsequent hate mail and demands that the University of Arizona terminate her employment.
So who is this woman at the center of the storm? To name just a few areas of her expertise, Dr. Soto is a leading voice on Chicana/o Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies and Queer Studies. As someone wedded to her convictions, she committed a dangerous and courageous act, standing firm in her delivery while speaking out against Arizona’s racist legislation. In so doing, Dr. Soto not only challenged these laws — she also called on the graduating class to adhere to a higher degree of humanity.
In her speech, Dr. Soto declared that it's our civic responsibility to have "educated, well-informed and non-hysterical debate.” Those words are especially true when it comes to the debate over Arizona's laws. Unfortunately, we've reached a point at which Dr. Soto’s words are actually getting deemed radical, when all she intended was to appeal to the basic humanity in all of us. After all, what's so radical about asking that we have educated, well-informed and non-hysterical debate about issues affecting the lives of thousands?
Perhaps the threat in these words lies in how they might actually encourage — as Dr. Soto describes — the development of "solutions that are fundamentally respectful of human and civil rights.” The crowd’s reactions, and the backlash that's followed, illustrate how low our society's regard for basic civil rights has sunk. As a scholar, a woman of color — a Chicana — Dr. Soto was simply honoring her own integrity by speaking on behalf of those of us who cannot or will not. For that, she's been publicly pilloried.
I once identified as a progressive — someone who believed in fundamental human rights and civil liberties. Based on the conservative wave washing over our “post-race” America, I realize the term progressive falls short. It seems those of us who hold beliefs like Dr. Soto's are in fact, radicals, perhaps of another planet. Arizona Governor Brewer was right; I am an alien.
Photo Credit: Ken Lund
Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano is the Associate Director of Justice Matters and has previously worked in queer communities of color in the South and Southwest.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Robert Reich: How Capitalism is Killing Democracy
Interesting piece by Robert Reich. A worthwhile read. -Angela
Population shift could alter politics in Texas
Aside from immigration, education is a leading consistent issue on which Hispanics always poll strongly. They care deeply about the dropout rate.
-Angela
Population shift could alter politics in Texas
By Gary Scharrer - Express-News
Web Posted: 05/16/2010 12:00 CDT
AUSTIN — They say demographics is destiny, and if so, Texas Republicans will have to try harder in the coming years if they want to keep the state in the red column.
School enrollment shows the state's population transformation is well under way, and Hispanics are expected to surpass the Anglo population sometime between 2015 and 2020, according to the Texas State Data Center.
Hispanics will make up 78 percent of Texas' population growth between now and 2040, while African Americans will account for 6 percent and Anglos only 4 percent, according to the center.
Republicans gained political supremacy in Texas some 15 years ago and today hold all 29 statewide elected offices. But the party has had a hard time keeping Hispanics in statewide office and an even harder time attracting Hispanic voters.
Texas Democrats have been getting about 70 percent of the Hispanic vote, said Jerry Polinard, a political science professor at UT-Pan American in Edinburg and expert on Mexican American political behavior.
There are no Hispanics among the 96 Republicans in the 181-member Legislature, and their support for voter ID bills and efforts to enlist local police in enforcing federal immigration law “reinforce that the Republican Party is anti-Latino,” Polinard said.
Opposing the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, as Texas' two Republican senators did last year, won't inspire Hispanic enthusiasm, either, Polinard said.
The Texas GOP platform demands abolition of bilingual education and supports legislation that would ban noncitizen children from attending public schools.
Its plank on unauthorized immigration is, “No amnesty! No how. No way.”
The 15-member State Board of Education, which is rewriting social studies curriculum standards for public schools, is two-thirds Anglo — and all of its Anglo members and none of its minority members are Republicans. Its draft proposal, set for a final vote this Friday, has been fiercely criticized as Anglo and conservative triumphalism that skimps minority contributions.
“This has consequences,” Polinard said. “Nobody knows when the magic time is, but if Democrats get 65 (percent) to 70 percent of the Mexican American vote, they are going to start winning all the elections.”
When he was governor, George W. Bush reached out to the Hispanic community, avoided immigrant-bashing and won about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote en route to his 1998 re-election, Polinard said.
The state's population trend “without question is showing the absolute, skyrocketing trajectory of Latinos,” Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.
But he was quick to emphasize that “no political party has the right to claim ownership of the Latino community.”
Texas Republican Party Chairwoman Cathy Adams would agree on that point. She said most of the non-Anglo population moving into Texas is conservative, with principles that align with the Republican Party, she said.
Adams is confident that Texas GOP Hispanics will be elected to Congress and to the Legislature this November. Four Hispanic Republicans are seeking Texas congressional seats, and six are running for the state House.
“We’re quickly making inroads into the Hispanic community,” she said, citing outreach to the Hispanic community to help Latinos understand that Democrats “embrace taxpayer funded abortion and bigger government that hurts entrepreneurship.”
The GOP will need to show action to back any talk about sharing Hispanic values, Martinez Fischer said.
Republicans “don’t seem to place a high priority on reaching out to Hispanic voters and if they do, you will not notice it because it gets drowned out in the echo chamber of anti-immigration and dehumanization of Latinos in Texas,” he said. “It’s a level of mean-spiritness and people have long memories.”
In the past four Texas gubernatorial elections, Latinos have represented between 13 percent and 19 percent of the total turnout, according to the San Antonio-based Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.
Hispanic voters are probably at least 10 years away from delivering 25 to 30 percent of turnout — but their median age today is 27, some 10 years younger than for Anglo voters, said Lydia Camarillo, the organization's vice president.
The leading issues for Latinos, she said, are taxes and services — and immigration.
“Immigration, without a doubt, has become the litmus test for Latinos,” Camarillo said.
-Angela
Population shift could alter politics in Texas
By Gary Scharrer - Express-News
Web Posted: 05/16/2010 12:00 CDT
AUSTIN — They say demographics is destiny, and if so, Texas Republicans will have to try harder in the coming years if they want to keep the state in the red column.
School enrollment shows the state's population transformation is well under way, and Hispanics are expected to surpass the Anglo population sometime between 2015 and 2020, according to the Texas State Data Center.
Hispanics will make up 78 percent of Texas' population growth between now and 2040, while African Americans will account for 6 percent and Anglos only 4 percent, according to the center.
Republicans gained political supremacy in Texas some 15 years ago and today hold all 29 statewide elected offices. But the party has had a hard time keeping Hispanics in statewide office and an even harder time attracting Hispanic voters.
Texas Democrats have been getting about 70 percent of the Hispanic vote, said Jerry Polinard, a political science professor at UT-Pan American in Edinburg and expert on Mexican American political behavior.
There are no Hispanics among the 96 Republicans in the 181-member Legislature, and their support for voter ID bills and efforts to enlist local police in enforcing federal immigration law “reinforce that the Republican Party is anti-Latino,” Polinard said.
Opposing the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, as Texas' two Republican senators did last year, won't inspire Hispanic enthusiasm, either, Polinard said.
The Texas GOP platform demands abolition of bilingual education and supports legislation that would ban noncitizen children from attending public schools.
Its plank on unauthorized immigration is, “No amnesty! No how. No way.”
The 15-member State Board of Education, which is rewriting social studies curriculum standards for public schools, is two-thirds Anglo — and all of its Anglo members and none of its minority members are Republicans. Its draft proposal, set for a final vote this Friday, has been fiercely criticized as Anglo and conservative triumphalism that skimps minority contributions.
“This has consequences,” Polinard said. “Nobody knows when the magic time is, but if Democrats get 65 (percent) to 70 percent of the Mexican American vote, they are going to start winning all the elections.”
When he was governor, George W. Bush reached out to the Hispanic community, avoided immigrant-bashing and won about 40 percent of the Hispanic vote en route to his 1998 re-election, Polinard said.
The state's population trend “without question is showing the absolute, skyrocketing trajectory of Latinos,” Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.
But he was quick to emphasize that “no political party has the right to claim ownership of the Latino community.”
Texas Republican Party Chairwoman Cathy Adams would agree on that point. She said most of the non-Anglo population moving into Texas is conservative, with principles that align with the Republican Party, she said.
Adams is confident that Texas GOP Hispanics will be elected to Congress and to the Legislature this November. Four Hispanic Republicans are seeking Texas congressional seats, and six are running for the state House.
“We’re quickly making inroads into the Hispanic community,” she said, citing outreach to the Hispanic community to help Latinos understand that Democrats “embrace taxpayer funded abortion and bigger government that hurts entrepreneurship.”
The GOP will need to show action to back any talk about sharing Hispanic values, Martinez Fischer said.
Republicans “don’t seem to place a high priority on reaching out to Hispanic voters and if they do, you will not notice it because it gets drowned out in the echo chamber of anti-immigration and dehumanization of Latinos in Texas,” he said. “It’s a level of mean-spiritness and people have long memories.”
In the past four Texas gubernatorial elections, Latinos have represented between 13 percent and 19 percent of the total turnout, according to the San Antonio-based Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.
Hispanic voters are probably at least 10 years away from delivering 25 to 30 percent of turnout — but their median age today is 27, some 10 years younger than for Anglo voters, said Lydia Camarillo, the organization's vice president.
The leading issues for Latinos, she said, are taxes and services — and immigration.
“Immigration, without a doubt, has become the litmus test for Latinos,” Camarillo said.
The Truth Shall Not be Spoken in Arizona
Check this out. By Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report.
Angela
Angela
Monday, May 17, 2010
Professors in Texas Protest Law That Requires Them to Post Teaching Details Online
May 6, 2010
Professors in Texas Protest Law That Requires Them to Post Teaching Details Online
By Katherine Mangan
Austin, Tex.
Faculty members and administrators in Texas are speaking out about a recent state law that requires them to post specific, detailed information about their classroom assignments, curricula vitae, department budgets, and the results of student evaluations.
A conservative group whose administrators have close ties to Gov. Rick Perry lobbied for the law, saying it offers important "consumer protection." Opponents counter that it has created an expensive and time-consuming burden and offers little benefit to the public.
Beginning this fall, universities will have to post online a syllabus for every undergraduate course, including major assignments and examinations, reading lists, and course descriptions.
Curricula vitae must include a faculty member's teaching experience and contributions to professional publications. All of the information must be no more than three clicks away from the college's home page.
Colleges are required to assign compliance duties to a campus administrator and, every other year, send a written report to the governor and legislative leaders.
David M. Hillis, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, calls the law "the worst example of government meddling at a huge cost to the public and for zero public good that I have ever seen."
He says lawmakers did not consult with faculty governance groups when formulating the legislation.
Students can already find most of the required information in other forms on the Web. "It takes an enormous amount of time and effort on the part of every faculty member to assemble and post this information in the particular form that the Legislature demands," Mr. Hillis says.
Conservative Backing
The legislation, HB 2504 , was signed into law in June 2009. It received enthusiastic backing from groups including the Young Conservatives of Texas and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank whose president, Brooke L. Rollins, is Governor Perry's former policy director.
Elizabeth Young, a policy analyst with the foundation, said the bill would enable students to make more informed decisions about which professors' courses to sign up for. "By forcing universities to list a professor's postsecondary education and teaching experience, students will have a more accurate representation of a professor's classroom abilities than they would have otherwise," she wrote in testimony to lawmakers debating the bill.
The law has caught the attention of conservative policy groups outside of Texas. George Leef, director of research at the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, N.C., said he would like to see other states adopt the Texas approach.
Opponents say the law will invite political interference, and one of its requirements—posting online students' evaluations of professors—could encourage grade inflation and prompt some students to choose professors and classes that look easy.
Students as Customers
Cary D. Wintz, a professor of history at Texas Southern University, objects to the model of students as customers. "We're not Kmart. We aren't having a blue-light special on history this week," says Mr. Wintz, who serves on the board of the Texas Faculty Association.
Theresa J.C. Norman, an instructor of philosophy at South Texas College, calls the reporting requirements "a waste of time."
Ms. Norman, who is also president of the South Texas Faculty Association, also resents what she sees as the law's underlying assumptions. "You get the feeling that the government sees us as slackers," she says. By requiring professors to list every assignment, she says the law interferes with her ability to respond to students' interests and current events and shift to different topics during the semester.
Texas Tech University has spent $85,000 upgrading its server and hiring an administrator to train faculty members how to create digitally-searchable CV's and syllabi that will meet the law's requirements, according to Valerie O. Paton, vice president for planning and assessment.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Lois W. Kolkhorst, wanted to protect students and tuition-paying parents at a time of rising college costs, according to her chief of staff, Chris Steinbach. "Enrolling in a course and finding that it's not what you needed can be an expensive mistake," he says.
Source: http://chronicle.com/article/Texas-Law-Requires-Professors/65450/
Professors in Texas Protest Law That Requires Them to Post Teaching Details Online
By Katherine Mangan
Austin, Tex.
Faculty members and administrators in Texas are speaking out about a recent state law that requires them to post specific, detailed information about their classroom assignments, curricula vitae, department budgets, and the results of student evaluations.
A conservative group whose administrators have close ties to Gov. Rick Perry lobbied for the law, saying it offers important "consumer protection." Opponents counter that it has created an expensive and time-consuming burden and offers little benefit to the public.
Beginning this fall, universities will have to post online a syllabus for every undergraduate course, including major assignments and examinations, reading lists, and course descriptions.
Curricula vitae must include a faculty member's teaching experience and contributions to professional publications. All of the information must be no more than three clicks away from the college's home page.
Colleges are required to assign compliance duties to a campus administrator and, every other year, send a written report to the governor and legislative leaders.
David M. Hillis, a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, calls the law "the worst example of government meddling at a huge cost to the public and for zero public good that I have ever seen."
He says lawmakers did not consult with faculty governance groups when formulating the legislation.
Students can already find most of the required information in other forms on the Web. "It takes an enormous amount of time and effort on the part of every faculty member to assemble and post this information in the particular form that the Legislature demands," Mr. Hillis says.
Conservative Backing
The legislation, HB 2504
Elizabeth Young, a policy analyst with the foundation, said the bill would enable students to make more informed decisions about which professors' courses to sign up for. "By forcing universities to list a professor's postsecondary education and teaching experience, students will have a more accurate representation of a professor's classroom abilities than they would have otherwise," she wrote in testimony to lawmakers debating the bill.
The law has caught the attention of conservative policy groups outside of Texas. George Leef, director of research at the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh, N.C., said he would like to see other states adopt the Texas approach.
Opponents say the law will invite political interference, and one of its requirements—posting online students' evaluations of professors—could encourage grade inflation and prompt some students to choose professors and classes that look easy.
Students as Customers
Cary D. Wintz, a professor of history at Texas Southern University, objects to the model of students as customers. "We're not Kmart. We aren't having a blue-light special on history this week," says Mr. Wintz, who serves on the board of the Texas Faculty Association.
Theresa J.C. Norman, an instructor of philosophy at South Texas College, calls the reporting requirements "a waste of time."
Ms. Norman, who is also president of the South Texas Faculty Association, also resents what she sees as the law's underlying assumptions. "You get the feeling that the government sees us as slackers," she says. By requiring professors to list every assignment, she says the law interferes with her ability to respond to students' interests and current events and shift to different topics during the semester.
Texas Tech University has spent $85,000 upgrading its server and hiring an administrator to train faculty members how to create digitally-searchable CV's and syllabi that will meet the law's requirements, according to Valerie O. Paton, vice president for planning and assessment.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Lois W. Kolkhorst, wanted to protect students and tuition-paying parents at a time of rising college costs, according to her chief of staff, Chris Steinbach. "Enrolling in a course and finding that it's not what you needed can be an expensive mistake," he says.
Source: http://chronicle.com/article/Texas-Law-Requires-Professors/65450/
Latino Giant to Change U.S. Politics
Latino Giant to Change U.S. Politics
SAN ANTONIO - It was over frozen lattes three blocks from the Alamo that Lydia Camarillo and I discussed the wave of Latino voters expected to change politics in Texas - and America. Camarillo is vice president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a group that signs up new Hispanic voters and spurs them to the polls.
Some Texans predict that the "Latino giant" won't fully flex its political might until 2012. Some say 2014. Others see the tough immigration law in Arizona moving the impact to this year. All agree that when Latinos arrive at the polls in huge numbers, the results won't please Republicans.
"I think they know that the day is coming," Camarillo said. "That's why they are coming up with obstructions, such as voter ID laws."
And there's not much Republicans can do about a surging Latino electorate in the short term. Even if they appeal to more Latino voters and Hispanic turnout stays weak, the raw numbers may overwhelm them.
As Rice University political analyst Bob Stein explains, over the past three decades, Latino support for Democrats in Texas has actually fallen from 75 percent to 60 percent. But as Democrats lost 15 percentage points, they almost doubled in the number of votes received because of the explosive growth in the Latino population.
"The Democrats can afford to lose a significant percentage of the vote and still gain on the base," Stein said. "Elections are determined by how many votes you get."
And the expansion of that base is extraordinary. Steve Murdock, former director of the U.S. Census and now a professor at Rice University, has the numbers.
In 1980, there were 3 million Hispanics in Texas. In 2008, the total nearly reached 9 million, and projections put it at almost 10 million this year.
"One national figure that sticks out is the change in the under-20 population," Murdock told me.
Between 2000 and 2008, the number of 20-and-under non-Hispanic whites fell by 2.6 million, while Latinos increased by 3.8 million.
"In many ways, the Texas of today is the U.S. of tomorrow," he added.
Will events in Arizona raise Latino turnout this year? While many Hispanics oppose illegal immigration, this law is being perceived as singling out their kind, and Texas Republicans know it.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is running for re-election, quickly distanced himself from the Arizona law. Democrats are sitting back and hoping this will help their candidate, former Houston Mayor Bill White.
Texas will probably gain three or four U.S. House seats in the new census. The state legislature, working with the governor, will help draw the new district lines. Suppose White wins and Republicans lose their majority in the Texas House, which now stands at only three seats. Another messy redistricting process is guaranteed, but this time to the Democrats' advantage.
But aren't Latinos conservative on such Republican-dominated issues as abortion, same-sex marriage and school choice? I asked Lydia Camarillo about this.
"My father didn't want me to wear pants because I'm a woman," she answered with a nod, "but he did want me to be a teacher."
Latinos do want universal health coverage and pre-kindergarten classes for their children, she noted. "The community is conservative in how it thinks, but it doesn't vote conservative."
And this Arizona law is unleashing Latino anxieties, as similar proposals pop up in other states. If the courts don't overturn it, Camarillo said, "you're going to see people understanding that the only way they can protect themselves is by registering and voting."
Clearly, it's not sage politics to pit a shrinking Republican base against the growing Latino giant. That may or may not work this time, but the population trend lines do not bode well for the Republican future.
To find out more about Froma Harrop, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com
COPYRIGHT 2010 THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL CO.
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
SAN ANTONIO - It was over frozen lattes three blocks from the Alamo that Lydia Camarillo and I discussed the wave of Latino voters expected to change politics in Texas - and America. Camarillo is vice president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a group that signs up new Hispanic voters and spurs them to the polls.
Some Texans predict that the "Latino giant" won't fully flex its political might until 2012. Some say 2014. Others see the tough immigration law in Arizona moving the impact to this year. All agree that when Latinos arrive at the polls in huge numbers, the results won't please Republicans.
"I think they know that the day is coming," Camarillo said. "That's why they are coming up with obstructions, such as voter ID laws."
And there's not much Republicans can do about a surging Latino electorate in the short term. Even if they appeal to more Latino voters and Hispanic turnout stays weak, the raw numbers may overwhelm them.
As Rice University political analyst Bob Stein explains, over the past three decades, Latino support for Democrats in Texas has actually fallen from 75 percent to 60 percent. But as Democrats lost 15 percentage points, they almost doubled in the number of votes received because of the explosive growth in the Latino population.
"The Democrats can afford to lose a significant percentage of the vote and still gain on the base," Stein said. "Elections are determined by how many votes you get."
And the expansion of that base is extraordinary. Steve Murdock, former director of the U.S. Census and now a professor at Rice University, has the numbers.
In 1980, there were 3 million Hispanics in Texas. In 2008, the total nearly reached 9 million, and projections put it at almost 10 million this year.
"One national figure that sticks out is the change in the under-20 population," Murdock told me.
Between 2000 and 2008, the number of 20-and-under non-Hispanic whites fell by 2.6 million, while Latinos increased by 3.8 million.
"In many ways, the Texas of today is the U.S. of tomorrow," he added.
Will events in Arizona raise Latino turnout this year? While many Hispanics oppose illegal immigration, this law is being perceived as singling out their kind, and Texas Republicans know it.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is running for re-election, quickly distanced himself from the Arizona law. Democrats are sitting back and hoping this will help their candidate, former Houston Mayor Bill White.
Texas will probably gain three or four U.S. House
But aren't Latinos conservative on such Republican-dominated issues as abortion, same-sex marriage and school choice? I asked Lydia Camarillo about this.
"My father didn't want me to wear pants because I'm a woman," she answered with a nod, "but he did want me to be a teacher."
Latinos do want universal health coverage
And this Arizona law is unleashing Latino anxieties, as similar proposals pop up in other states. If the courts don't overturn it, Camarillo said, "you're going to see people understanding that the only way they can protect themselves is by registering and voting."
Clearly, it's not sage politics to pit a shrinking Republican base against the growing Latino giant. That may or may not work this time, but the population trend lines do not bode well for the Republican future.
To find out more about Froma Harrop, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com
COPYRIGHT 2010 THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL CO.
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
Hispanics, High School Dropouts and the GED
by Richard Fry, Senior Research Associate, Pew Hispanic Center
Just one-in-ten Hispanic high school drop-outs has a General Educational Development (GED) credential, widely regarded as the best "second chance" pathway to college, vocational training and military service for adults who do not graduate high school. By contrast, two-in-ten black high school drop-outs and three-in-ten white high school drop-outs has a GED, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of newly-available educational attainment data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey.
The relatively low level of GED credentialing among Hispanic high school drop-outs is especially notable because Hispanics have a much higher high school drop-out rate than do blacks or whites. Some 41% of Hispanic adults age 20 and older in the United States do not have a regular high school diploma, compared with 23% of black adults and 14% of white adults.
Among Hispanics, there are significant differences between the foreign born and the native born in high school diploma attainment rates and GED credentialing rates. Some 52% of foreign-born Latino adults are high school drop-outs, compared with 25% of the native born. And among Hispanic drop-outs, some 21% of the native born have a GED, compared with just 5% of the foreign born.
This Pew Hispanic Center report also analyzes labor market outcomes of Hispanic adults based on whether they dropped out of high school and lack a GED; have a GED; or obtained at least a regular high school diploma. Among its key findings:
As of 2008, Hispanic adults with a GED had a higher unemployment rate than Hispanic adults with a high school diploma - 9% versus 7%.
However, Hispanic full-time, full-year workers with a GED had about the same mean annual earnings ($33,504) as Hispanics full-time, full-year workers with a high school diploma ($32,972).
Other Resources
National Center for Education Statistics. 2009a. High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2007. September. NCES 2009-064. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2010. Employment Experience of Youth: Results from a Longitudinal Survey News Release. January 28. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Heckman, James J., and Paul A. LaFontaine. 2007. The American High School Graduation Rate: Trends and Levels. December. Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Discussion Paper No. 3216.
Fry, Richard. 2009. The Changing Pathways of Hispanic Youths Into Adulthood. October. Washington, D.C.: Pew Hispanic Center.
Just one-in-ten Hispanic high school drop-outs has a General Educational Development (GED) credential, widely regarded as the best "second chance" pathway to college, vocational training and military service for adults who do not graduate high school. By contrast, two-in-ten black high school drop-outs and three-in-ten white high school drop-outs has a GED, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of newly-available educational attainment data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey.
The relatively low level of GED credentialing among Hispanic high school drop-outs is especially notable because Hispanics have a much higher high school drop-out rate than do blacks or whites. Some 41% of Hispanic adults age 20 and older in the United States do not have a regular high school diploma, compared with 23% of black adults and 14% of white adults.
Among Hispanics, there are significant differences between the foreign born and the native born in high school diploma attainment rates and GED credentialing rates. Some 52% of foreign-born Latino adults are high school drop-outs, compared with 25% of the native born. And among Hispanic drop-outs, some 21% of the native born have a GED, compared with just 5% of the foreign born.
This Pew Hispanic Center report also analyzes labor market outcomes of Hispanic adults based on whether they dropped out of high school and lack a GED; have a GED; or obtained at least a regular high school diploma. Among its key findings:
As of 2008, Hispanic adults with a GED had a higher unemployment rate than Hispanic adults with a high school diploma - 9% versus 7%.
However, Hispanic full-time, full-year workers with a GED had about the same mean annual earnings ($33,504) as Hispanics full-time, full-year workers with a high school diploma ($32,972).
Other Resources
National Center for Education Statistics. 2009a. High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2007. September. NCES 2009-064. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2010. Employment Experience of Youth: Results from a Longitudinal Survey News Release. January 28. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Heckman, James J., and Paul A. LaFontaine. 2007. The American High School Graduation Rate: Trends and Levels. December. Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Discussion Paper No. 3216.
Fry, Richard. 2009. The Changing Pathways of Hispanic Youths Into Adulthood. October. Washington, D.C.: Pew Hispanic Center.
Young Latino Children Show Strong Classroom Skills, Despite Many Growing Up in Poverty
May 3, 2010
Young Latino Children Show Strong Classroom Skills, Despite Many Growing Up in Poverty
But for teens, peer pressure, mediocre schools undercut initial gains.
WASHINGTON – Immigrant Latinos display strong parenting practices and raise socially agile children, but these early gains are likely to be eroded by mediocre schools and peer pressure in poor neighborhoods, according to findings published by the American Psychological Association.
In a special section of the journal Developmental Psychology, a team of researchers examines how no-nonsense parenting practices – especially Latino traditions of strict discipline, respect for adults and strong family bonds – shape children’s social and cognitive growth and their assimilation into mainstream culture.
“Immigrant kids begin school with surprisingly good social skills, eager to engage teachers and classroom tasks, even though many are raised in poor households,” said Bruce Fuller, PhD, of the University of California at Berkeley, who co-edited the special section. “This stems from tight families and tough-headed parenting. Our findings shatter the myth that immigrant or low-income parents necessarily produce troubled children.”
One study, based on 19,500 kindergartners nationwide, found that Latino children engaged in classroom activities and displayed cooperative skills at levels equal to those of white non-Latino children, despite vast differences in family income between the groups. In addition, Latino children’s social skills contributed to their learning about numbers and mathematical concepts during this first year of school, the researchers found.
But children’s social agility and classroom enthusiasm often wanes by middle school, according to the researchers. “These children benefit from a strong foundation against outside negative forces, which contributes to their early school achievement but fades over time, especially during adolescence,” said Cynthia GarcÃa Coll, PhD, of Brown University, co-editor of the special section. “Assimilation places many children at risk of losing tight bonds to family and [experiencing] school failure.”
The national study of Latino kindergartners included teacher reports of five social competencies: engaged approaches to learning, self-control, interpersonal skills, internalized problem behaviors (anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem) and externalized problem behaviors (propensity to argue, get angry, act impulsively). “Those Latino children who were the best at focusing on learning tasks showed the steepest learning curves in math,” said Claudia Galindo, PhD, a University of Maryland professor who co-directed the study.
Children from African-American homes did not show comparable levels of classroom engagement and social agility. “Poverty alone does not explain the strength of parenting or the social assets that children bring to school,” Fuller said. “Culture and language growth play a huge role in boosting achievement, which we now see benefit many Latino children.”
Children from Puerto Rican families, in contrast to those of Mexican heritage, showed disparities in social competence when compared to white non-Latino children. Children of Cuban or South American descent (whose parents had higher education levels, on average) showed equal competence when compared to white non-Latino children.
Two additional studies in the journal’s special section show how early gains for Latino children can be undercut during adolescence through peer pressure, weak schools and the perception of ethnic discrimination. In the first study, Latino teens who pulled away from parents and their ethnic identity displayed weaker school engagement (Umaña-Taylor and Guimond). When teens perceived ethnic or racial discrimination, they tended to retain stronger family ties that strengthened their ethnic identity, the researchers found.
The second study – tracking 294 older Latino and Asian immigrant children – found that those attending highly segregated or violent schools went downhill in their own school achievement (Suárez-Orosco and others). The rising rate of single-parent families in many immigrant communities is associated with a drop in children’s school performance.
Other findings include:
Young Latino children’s enthusiasm and agility in classrooms stems from warm yet firm parenting practices (Livas-Dlott and others). Researchers observed 25 Mexican-American 4-year-olds inside their homes and found that mothers on average were clear and direct when children misbehaved or failed to complete an assigned task. This tough-love parenting occurred within a supportive climate, nurturing cooperative children who expressed mutual obligations to family members, researchers said.Another study shows how strong customs from one’s native country can promote learning by teaching children to pay attention to what is going on in front of them (Lopez and others). Researchers gave instructions to 38 6- to 11-year-old siblings in order to examine differences in learning processes between those raised under Mexican traditions and those raised by parents who practiced American customs. Children paid more attention to their siblings’ activities and learned a novel task more readily when living in homes where Mexican customs were practiced. Children paid less attention to their siblings, and learned less, when living in homes where Western traditions and individualistic practices prevailed.Researchers surveyed 15,362 African-American, Latino and Asian tenth- graders from 752 schools about their understanding of how racial and socioeconomic barriers affect their expectations for well-paying jobs (Diemer and others). Two years later, the researchers asked the students about their extracurricular activities, school achievement, community participation and vocational expectations. Reading and math achievement had the strongest effect on the students’ expectation of winning high-paying jobs, while awareness of racial and economic barriers had the strongest effect on the value that students placed on work.
Articles in the special section
Citation information: "Latino Children and Families: Development in Cultural Context," Developmental Psychology, Vol. 46, No. 3.
“Learning From Latinos: Contexts, Families, and Child Development in Motion: Introduction to the Special Section” (PDF, 74KB)
Contact Bruce Fuller by phone at 415-595-4320 (cell); or contact Cynthia Garcia Coll by e-mail or by phone 401-447-4590 (cell).“The Social Competence of Latino Kindergartners and Growth in Mathematical Understanding” (PDF, 117KB)
Contact Claudia Galindo by e-mail or by phone at 814-876-0683.“Sociopolitical Development, Work Salience, and Vocational Expectations Among Low Socioeconomic Status African American, Latin American, and Asian American Youth” (PDF, 180KB)
Contact Matthew A. Diemer by e-mail or by phone at 517-614-9274. “Attention to Instruction Directed to Another by U.S. Mexican-Heritage Children of Varying Cultural Backgrounds” (PDF, 155KB) Contact Angelica Lopez by e-mail or by phone at 831-459-2002.“Academic Trajectories of Newcomer Immigrant Youth” (PDF, 158KB)
Contact Carola Suarez-Orozco by e-mail or by phone at 718-431-4232 or 609-734-8266.“Commands, Competence, and Carino: Maternal Socialization Practices in Mexican American Families” (PDF, 133KB)
Contact Alejandra Livas-Dlott by e-mail or by phone at 919-608-4007.“A Longitudinal Examination of Parenting Behaviors and Perceived Discrimination Predicting Latino Adolescents’ Ethnic Identity” (PDF, 171KB)
Contact Adriana J. Umana-Taylor by e-mail or by phone at 480-727-8670.
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 152,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.
Young Latino Children Show Strong Classroom Skills, Despite Many Growing Up in Poverty
But for teens, peer pressure, mediocre schools undercut initial gains.
WASHINGTON – Immigrant Latinos display strong parenting practices and raise socially agile children, but these early gains are likely to be eroded by mediocre schools and peer pressure in poor neighborhoods, according to findings published by the American Psychological Association.
In a special section of the journal Developmental Psychology, a team of researchers examines how no-nonsense parenting practices – especially Latino traditions of strict discipline, respect for adults and strong family bonds – shape children’s social and cognitive growth and their assimilation into mainstream culture.
“Immigrant kids begin school with surprisingly good social skills, eager to engage teachers and classroom tasks, even though many are raised in poor households,” said Bruce Fuller, PhD, of the University of California at Berkeley, who co-edited the special section. “This stems from tight families and tough-headed parenting. Our findings shatter the myth that immigrant or low-income parents necessarily produce troubled children.”
One study, based on 19,500 kindergartners nationwide, found that Latino children engaged in classroom activities and displayed cooperative skills at levels equal to those of white non-Latino children, despite vast differences in family income between the groups. In addition, Latino children’s social skills contributed to their learning about numbers and mathematical concepts during this first year of school, the researchers found.
But children’s social agility and classroom enthusiasm often wanes by middle school, according to the researchers. “These children benefit from a strong foundation against outside negative forces, which contributes to their early school achievement but fades over time, especially during adolescence,” said Cynthia GarcÃa Coll, PhD, of Brown University, co-editor of the special section. “Assimilation places many children at risk of losing tight bonds to family and [experiencing] school failure.”
The national study of Latino kindergartners included teacher reports of five social competencies: engaged approaches to learning, self-control, interpersonal skills, internalized problem behaviors (anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem) and externalized problem behaviors (propensity to argue, get angry, act impulsively). “Those Latino children who were the best at focusing on learning tasks showed the steepest learning curves in math,” said Claudia Galindo, PhD, a University of Maryland professor who co-directed the study.
Children from African-American homes did not show comparable levels of classroom engagement and social agility. “Poverty alone does not explain the strength of parenting or the social assets that children bring to school,” Fuller said. “Culture and language growth play a huge role in boosting achievement, which we now see benefit many Latino children.”
Children from Puerto Rican families, in contrast to those of Mexican heritage, showed disparities in social competence when compared to white non-Latino children. Children of Cuban or South American descent (whose parents had higher education levels, on average) showed equal competence when compared to white non-Latino children.
Two additional studies in the journal’s special section show how early gains for Latino children can be undercut during adolescence through peer pressure, weak schools and the perception of ethnic discrimination. In the first study, Latino teens who pulled away from parents and their ethnic identity displayed weaker school engagement (Umaña-Taylor and Guimond). When teens perceived ethnic or racial discrimination, they tended to retain stronger family ties that strengthened their ethnic identity, the researchers found.
The second study – tracking 294 older Latino and Asian immigrant children – found that those attending highly segregated or violent schools went downhill in their own school achievement (Suárez-Orosco and others). The rising rate of single-parent families in many immigrant communities is associated with a drop in children’s school performance.
Other findings include:
Young Latino children’s enthusiasm and agility in classrooms stems from warm yet firm parenting practices (Livas-Dlott and others). Researchers observed 25 Mexican-American 4-year-olds inside their homes and found that mothers on average were clear and direct when children misbehaved or failed to complete an assigned task. This tough-love parenting occurred within a supportive climate, nurturing cooperative children who expressed mutual obligations to family members, researchers said.Another study shows how strong customs from one’s native country can promote learning by teaching children to pay attention to what is going on in front of them (Lopez and others). Researchers gave instructions to 38 6- to 11-year-old siblings in order to examine differences in learning processes between those raised under Mexican traditions and those raised by parents who practiced American customs. Children paid more attention to their siblings’ activities and learned a novel task more readily when living in homes where Mexican customs were practiced. Children paid less attention to their siblings, and learned less, when living in homes where Western traditions and individualistic practices prevailed.Researchers surveyed 15,362 African-American, Latino and Asian tenth- graders from 752 schools about their understanding of how racial and socioeconomic barriers affect their expectations for well-paying jobs (Diemer and others). Two years later, the researchers asked the students about their extracurricular activities, school achievement, community participation and vocational expectations. Reading and math achievement had the strongest effect on the students’ expectation of winning high-paying jobs, while awareness of racial and economic barriers had the strongest effect on the value that students placed on work.
Articles in the special section
Citation information: "Latino Children and Families: Development in Cultural Context," Developmental Psychology, Vol. 46, No. 3.
“Learning From Latinos: Contexts, Families, and Child Development in Motion: Introduction to the Special Section” (PDF, 74KB)
Contact Bruce Fuller by phone at 415-595-4320 (cell); or contact Cynthia Garcia Coll by e-mail or by phone 401-447-4590 (cell).“The Social Competence of Latino Kindergartners and Growth in Mathematical Understanding” (PDF, 117KB)
Contact Claudia Galindo by e-mail or by phone at 814-876-0683.“Sociopolitical Development, Work Salience, and Vocational Expectations Among Low Socioeconomic Status African American, Latin American, and Asian American Youth” (PDF, 180KB)
Contact Matthew A. Diemer by e-mail or by phone at 517-614-9274. “Attention to Instruction Directed to Another by U.S. Mexican-Heritage Children of Varying Cultural Backgrounds” (PDF, 155KB) Contact Angelica Lopez by e-mail or by phone at 831-459-2002.“Academic Trajectories of Newcomer Immigrant Youth” (PDF, 158KB)
Contact Carola Suarez-Orozco by e-mail or by phone at 718-431-4232 or 609-734-8266.“Commands, Competence, and Carino: Maternal Socialization Practices in Mexican American Families” (PDF, 133KB)
Contact Alejandra Livas-Dlott by e-mail or by phone at 919-608-4007.“A Longitudinal Examination of Parenting Behaviors and Perceived Discrimination Predicting Latino Adolescents’ Ethnic Identity” (PDF, 171KB)
Contact Adriana J. Umana-Taylor by e-mail or by phone at 480-727-8670.
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 152,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.
Why Native/Indigenous Knowledge Is Important
This is such an eloquent statement on the value of culturally relevant pedagogy for all people.
Angela
Why Native/Indigenous Knowledge Is Important
By Michael Heralda
There is some confusion regarding the idea of teaching native/indigenous knowledge in schools (K-12, colleges and universities) and its purpose – see the Arizona state measure (HB 2281) that was recently signed by Governor Jan Brewer banning Ethnic Studies programs in schools.
I share indigenous knowledge in my Aztec Stories presentations, in my CDs, and in the poems and narratives I write. I have been doing this since 1995 and I have visited and shared native knowledge at over 300 K-12 schools across the United States. Students and teachers alike have enjoyed what I shared and found the information relevant, important, enlightening, and inspiring to coin a few of the comments I have received over the years. Most teachers, as well as parents, recognize the value of culture and the arts.
One of the goals of my work is to instill a sense of pride in those genetically connected to the native cultures of this continent. Having a healthy sense of pride is, I believe, a solid foundation on which we can build a strong and meaningful life. Being respectful of nature, discovering our gifts/talents and developing them to a very high degree, being forthright, honest, and fostering a sense of integrity as well as discipline are all components that are continually expressed in native oral tradition stories. Oral tradition stories contain life lessons. When you can teach life lessons in a manner appropriate and tailored to an individual, where they immediately see the relevance, then there is a much greater chance that the lessons learned will remain in their conscious thoughts for a longer period of time - assisting them in making wise choices and decisions throughout their life. Plus, they will hand down this time-proven knowledge to their children and grandchildren. This is essentially what culture and heritage is all about.
For those listeners that are not connected, genetically or spiritually, to the native cultures of this continent, the messages I try to share, and what I want them to gain from my presentations, is an awareness of, and an appreciation for, the beauty, wisdom, and intelligence that the indigenous peoples of this continent have attained – to recognize their contributions and to see the differences in order to become aware of the similarities. This is the true value of programs that share culture.
When you look up the definition of the word “culture” in the dictionary it is described as “the quality in a person or society that arises from an interest in and acquaintance with what is generally regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, and scholarly pursuits, etc.” In other words, it is the highest accomplishments of a society! It is the best that a group has attained! Why wouldn’t we want our children and students to benefit from the best of all cultures?
Over the years people from various geographic locations and cultures of the world have shared stories with me about their ancestors’ traditions that are very similar to the ones I share from the indigenous people on this continent! I have come to realize that there is a universal consciousness that binds us all together no matter what part of the world our families come from. By learning about a particular culture, your own or another, you begin to develop an interest in your family’s heritage, traditions, and ceremonies. When this happens, you become more aware of who you are. There is no down side to this and the world becomes much richer for it. True diversity comes only from people with different backgrounds and perspectives working together.
The most important concept to grasp is that cultural programs are not exclusive programs – they are inclusive opportunities to see the world through a different set of eyes and from a different perspective. In order to engage your critical thinking skills different perspectives must be present otherwise we run the risk of becoming one huge mono-crop susceptible to disease. What we don’t need in the world is sameness (one thought or philosophy to follow) which has the potential to produce a lifeless homogenized state of mind with very little advancement opportunities. This is a perfect formula for stagnation and/or a gateway to a new Dark Age.
We still have a lot to learn about living with each other and with nature and almost every culture on this planet that still maintains and practices their rich traditions and ceremonies helps us get a little closer to recognizing that we are all one - I am you, you are me / Nehua ti Nehua (an ancient saying in the language of the Mexica people - Nahuatl).
Continue to share the knowledge of your ancestors. Find the means to provide for your children what is necessary so that they learn and become proud of their heritage and culture while at the same time becoming meaningful and productive contributors in their local and global communities.
Michael Heralda
Aztec Stories
www.aztecstories.com
Ph: 323-633-9599
E-mail: michaelheralda@aol.com
P.O. Box 50221
Los Angeles, CA 90050
Angela
Why Native/Indigenous Knowledge Is Important
By Michael Heralda
There is some confusion regarding the idea of teaching native/indigenous knowledge in schools (K-12, colleges and universities) and its purpose – see the Arizona state measure (HB 2281) that was recently signed by Governor Jan Brewer banning Ethnic Studies programs in schools.
I share indigenous knowledge in my Aztec Stories presentations, in my CDs, and in the poems and narratives I write. I have been doing this since 1995 and I have visited and shared native knowledge at over 300 K-12 schools across the United States. Students and teachers alike have enjoyed what I shared and found the information relevant, important, enlightening, and inspiring to coin a few of the comments I have received over the years. Most teachers, as well as parents, recognize the value of culture and the arts.
One of the goals of my work is to instill a sense of pride in those genetically connected to the native cultures of this continent. Having a healthy sense of pride is, I believe, a solid foundation on which we can build a strong and meaningful life. Being respectful of nature, discovering our gifts/talents and developing them to a very high degree, being forthright, honest, and fostering a sense of integrity as well as discipline are all components that are continually expressed in native oral tradition stories. Oral tradition stories contain life lessons. When you can teach life lessons in a manner appropriate and tailored to an individual, where they immediately see the relevance, then there is a much greater chance that the lessons learned will remain in their conscious thoughts for a longer period of time - assisting them in making wise choices and decisions throughout their life. Plus, they will hand down this time-proven knowledge to their children and grandchildren. This is essentially what culture and heritage is all about.
For those listeners that are not connected, genetically or spiritually, to the native cultures of this continent, the messages I try to share, and what I want them to gain from my presentations, is an awareness of, and an appreciation for, the beauty, wisdom, and intelligence that the indigenous peoples of this continent have attained – to recognize their contributions and to see the differences in order to become aware of the similarities. This is the true value of programs that share culture.
When you look up the definition of the word “culture” in the dictionary it is described as “the quality in a person or society that arises from an interest in and acquaintance with what is generally regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, and scholarly pursuits, etc.” In other words, it is the highest accomplishments of a society! It is the best that a group has attained! Why wouldn’t we want our children and students to benefit from the best of all cultures?
Over the years people from various geographic locations and cultures of the world have shared stories with me about their ancestors’ traditions that are very similar to the ones I share from the indigenous people on this continent! I have come to realize that there is a universal consciousness that binds us all together no matter what part of the world our families come from. By learning about a particular culture, your own or another, you begin to develop an interest in your family’s heritage, traditions, and ceremonies. When this happens, you become more aware of who you are. There is no down side to this and the world becomes much richer for it. True diversity comes only from people with different backgrounds and perspectives working together.
The most important concept to grasp is that cultural programs are not exclusive programs – they are inclusive opportunities to see the world through a different set of eyes and from a different perspective. In order to engage your critical thinking skills different perspectives must be present otherwise we run the risk of becoming one huge mono-crop susceptible to disease. What we don’t need in the world is sameness (one thought or philosophy to follow) which has the potential to produce a lifeless homogenized state of mind with very little advancement opportunities. This is a perfect formula for stagnation and/or a gateway to a new Dark Age.
We still have a lot to learn about living with each other and with nature and almost every culture on this planet that still maintains and practices their rich traditions and ceremonies helps us get a little closer to recognizing that we are all one - I am you, you are me / Nehua ti Nehua (an ancient saying in the language of the Mexica people - Nahuatl).
Continue to share the knowledge of your ancestors. Find the means to provide for your children what is necessary so that they learn and become proud of their heritage and culture while at the same time becoming meaningful and productive contributors in their local and global communities.
Michael Heralda
Aztec Stories
www.aztecstories.com
Ph: 323-633-9599
E-mail: michaelheralda@aol.com
P.O. Box 50221
Los Angeles, CA 90050
90 Years After the Ocoee Election Day Race Riot
90 Years After the Ocoee Election Day Race Riot
By Paul Ortiz
"The tendency to ignore the Negro's contribution to American life and to strip him of his personhood, is as old as the earliest history books and as contemporary as the morning's newspaper. To upset this cultural homicide, the Negro must rise up with an affirmation of his own Olympian manhood. Any movement for the Negro's freedom that overlooks this necessity is only waiting to be buried."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Every year, prominent voices urge us to forget Black History Month. Some claim its reverse racism. Others say that Black History makes white people feel bad. Academics have their own concerns. "Pressure group history of any kind is deplorable," Stanford University Professor Thomas A. Bailey intoned [pdf] in 1968, "especially when significant white men are bumped out to make room for less significant black men in the interests of social harmony....The luckless African-Americans while in slavery were essentially in jail; and we would not write the story of a nation in terms of its prison population."
More recently, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Cynthia Tucker argued that "[T]he nation of Tiger Woods, Oprah and Barack Obama no longer needs a Black History Month." When educated people advocate the abolition of Black History Month, it is easy to understand why there are students on the verge of graduating from college who do not understand why placing a hangman's noose in a public space is offensive.
Meanwhile, UC-San Diego students mock Black History Month, and argue that the uses of Jim Crow-era racial epithets at their February "Compton Cookout" gala are not racist.
Instead of being used as a tool to promote freedom, history is relentlessly invoked in order to maintain the status quo. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh understood that equating universal health care with "slavery reparations" would hamper reform efforts.
The Texas State Board of Education recently revised its social studies and history curriculum to give white people a more prominent role in high school textbooks -- while the new standards underplay institutional racism in American society. In tandem with its shameful, anti-immigrant policies, the Arizona State Legislature recently passed a bill designed to cripple ethnic studies curriculums.
Racism is still profitable. It is little wonder that big-business backed politicians would attack efforts to educate students about the contributions of people of color to this society.
Employers use racism to justify paying lower wages to minorities, and they also use racism as a divide-and-conquer tool to keep workers at odds with each other. The longstanding success of these tactics plays a major role in this country's low rates of unionization:
In fiscal year 2009, the EEOC [U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] received 33,579 charges alleging race-based discrimination [in the workplace] accounting for about 36% percent of the agency's private sector caseload. Historically, race-based charges have been one of the most frequent types of filing with EEOC offices nationwide.
Economic racism comes in many forms. While leafleting in support of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in North Carolina in the late 1990s, I encountered customers in front of grocery stores who brusquely told me that "Mexicans aren't as materialistic as Americans, and don't need as much to live on."
Others informed me that Latinos were like children and just didn't understand how to manage their money. I thought at the time that some foes of FLOC's Mt. Olive Pickle Boycott solaced themselves by creating in their minds a kind of Latino John Henry: a mindless, super-worker who picks those cucumbers and other crops with nary a care about how much they are paid or treated.
The EEOC recently settled a discrimination lawsuit with Big Lots, Inc. that involved a pattern of racial harassment in its distribution center at Rancho Cucamonga, California. "Specifically, the EEOC alleged that an immediate supervisor and co-workers, all Hispanic, made racially derogatory jokes, comments, slurs and epithets, including the use of the words 'n----r' and 'monkey.' Despite learning of the harassment, the company took no steps to prevent or correct it."
Americans are accused of being "ignorant" of history. So who taught these workers to use racial epithets that are rooted in the era of slavery and segregation? I'm sorry, but anyone who claims we live in a post-racial era is a damn fool.
In spite of the labors of scholars such as John Hope Franklin, Howard Zinn, and Rudy Acuña, the vital lessons of anti-racist struggle taught by figures such as Charlotta Bass, Frederick Douglass, and José Marti´ are being lost. Instead, Americans learn a falsified version of history that treats African Americans and Latinos as outsiders or as charitable wards that are placed in "diversity boxes" at the margins of historical textbooks.
One of my former students at UC-Santa Cruz explained: "As a student of African heritage growing up in Santa Cruz, a predominately Caucasian town, the role my ancestors played in the development of the country was never revealed. Slavery was always downplayed in favor of glorifying Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. How was I to regard my heritage with confidence while the environment I was raised in depicted Africans as nothing but slaves saved by a white man? Believe me no teacher ever let me forget that."
During Black History Month, I was asked the following question by a journalist in Florida: "Why is it so important to integrate the history of African Americans into our culture?" I paused to gather my thoughts. What did the reporter mean by "our culture"? Are African Americans always to be treated as outsiders?
I answered by saying that black history does not need to be integrated into US culture; it is at the center of that culture. Indeed, much of the world learns about America through black expressive arts that were forged by struggling African Americans in plantations and sharecrop farms ranging from New Orleans, Louisiana to Memphis, Tennessee.
Vast numbers of tourists visit Virginia plantations or northern seaports, places where African American labor created the wealth that a young merchant class used to launch the American Revolution. John Hancock said of Crispus Attucks, the first man -- a black man -- to die in the revolutionary cause:
"Who taught the British soldier that he might be defeated? Who dared looking into his eyes? I place, therefore, this Crispus Attucks in the foremost rank of the men that dared."
Black history allows us to better analyze events like the Revolution and the Civil War as well as writers such as William Faulkner, Herman Melville, and Toni Morrison. Each of these novelists--along with many of our best playwrights--were vitally concerned with questions of race, historical memory, and the future of a multiracial society.
In her essay, "Creating a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Lynching," Professor Sherrilyn Ifill reminds us that history shapes our everyday relations long after the guns of the past have been silenced.xii This is true not only of lynching but also for the many incidents of violent theft of black property during the Jim Crow Era. Dr. Ifill served as a featured expert in the documentary film "Banished: American Ethnic Cleansings." In this film, Charles Brown Jr., a descendant of a family driven out of Pierce City, Missouri by white mobs in 1901 commented on the ongoing impact this event has in our own time:
"The Cobb property, as well as the property of every other person of color who owned property in Pierce City, was stolen through adverse possession. The government did not protect the African American citizens of Pierce City on that day in 1901 and did not protect the chain of custody....I am upset because the town has chosen not to openly admit wrongdoing by their ancestors. The town has been collecting taxes on our property since 1902. How can Pierce City say they bear no responsibility? I am hurt, confused and outraged. The rest of my family feels the same way I do."xiii
Given the fact that every level of law enforcement, government, media and society in the 20th century was involved in perpetrating debt peonage, unequal schooling, housing segregation, and other forms of officially sanctioned injustice, where on earth do we get the idea that we today live in a "post-racial" society?
Sherilyn Ifill's call for a Truth and Reconciliation commission on these matters is a refreshing stand for human rights and historical accuracy. She believes that truth-telling could help us achieve a profound transformation in our society. "People say you can't change how people think," Ifill says. "That's absurd. What is the job for the 21st century? This is the job. We can't settle for the veneer of unity."xv
REMEMBRANCE
In the midst of a national euphoria of forgetting, a town called Ocoee, Florida has taken the bold step of remembering an event in the nation's history that many had tried to cover up. On Election Day, November 2, 1920 African Americans in Ocoee and in other parts of Florida sought to cast their ballots for President.
It was a revolutionary act. Black political participation would have shattered the very foundations of legal segregation in the South. A breakthrough in Florida would have accelerated the modern civil rights movement. Some of the greatest activists of the day were involved in this crusade, including James Weldon Johnson, Mary McCleod Bethune, and Walter White.
State and local officials -- along with the Ku Klux Klan -- understood that white supremacy was in trouble. They responded mercilessly. African Americans who tried to go to the polls were attacked, driven out of the state, and assassinated. In several counties, armed Klansmen surrounded courthouses on Election Day to ensure that black Floridians did not vote. In Ocoee, a well-organized group of paramilitaries killed and drove African Americans out of the town. Houses were torched, and refugees streamed out of western Orange County for days.
The NAACP's Walter White estimated that approximately fifty African Americans had been killed. A University of Florida student who interviewed local residents for a history term paper claimed in 1949 that "About thirty to thirty-five [murdered] is the most common estimate of the old timers." Ocoee remained an all-white town for decades.
Ocoee shared much in common with the thousands of other places in America that author James Lowen refers to as "sundown towns." These were areas where white residents colluded to drive African Americans out through coercion and violence in order to steal their land and resources.
Sundown towns were found in every state of the union and most of them were located outside of the South. Some of these all-white municipalities posted signs reading "'n----r' don't let the sun go down on you here," for generations. A resident of Ocoee wrote in 1969, "As recently as ten years ago a sign admonished the Ocoee visitor as he approached the city limits that Negroes and dogs were unwelcome."
Orange County kept the Election Day Riot under wraps. "The position among the old core of the community was: `Let's just not talk about it. What good will it do?'" remembered Rev. Bryan Stamper, the minister of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Ocoee. A critical step forward was taken when area resident--and future mayor -- Lester J. Dabbs pierced the veil of silence by writing his 1969 Stetson University M.A. thesis on the 1920 conflagration. Dabbs's work was titled, "A Report of the Circumstances and Events of the Race Riot on November 2, 1920 in Ocoee, Florida."
In the 1990s, citizens in Ocoee and Orange County organized to acknowledge the riot. These groups, which included the Democracy Forum as well as the West Orange Reconciliation Task Force, did critical work in bringing the massacre into the open, and honoring the victims.
Public discussions of the Election Day riot were fraught with tension as participants disagreed on the proper way to commemorate the event. A catalyst for this debate was the rapidly changing demographics of western Orange County. New generations of African Americans, Hispanics, and others began moving into the area in large numbers in the 1980s. Many of the newcomers genuinely wanted to know what had happened in 1920.
TRAVELING TO OCOEE
In the fall of 2009, I was invited to deliver the keynote address for the city of Ocoee's 2010 Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. It was an invitation I never expected to receive.
I knew that some people in Florida took issue with my depiction of what had occurred in Ocoee in 1920. I believed that stories of the riot were incomplete. Too many accounts did not mention that it had happened on the day of the Presidential Election.
The violence inflicted on African Americans in Ocoee occurred because they were challenging white rule, not because they were breaking the law. I also argued that accounts of the Election Day Riot that promoted a notion that "both sides suffered equally" missed the point that white supremacy was maintained in Ocoee while African Americans were physically driven out of the town.
William Maxwell, chair of Ocoee's Human Relations Diversity Board (HRDB) issued the formal invitation to me to be his city's MLK keynote speaker. In several conversations and emails with Mr. Maxwell leading up to the January 18 Unity Parade and Celebration, I learned that he was a military veteran, and a man of tremendous integrity who sought to use Martin Luther King Day to create a social space where all would feel welcome. The city chose Sheriff Jerry L. Demings, the first ever African American Sheriff of Orange County to be the parade's Marshal.
This was a remarkable experience, and I am still processing the meaning of it. As director of the University of Florida's Oral History Program, a major part of my job is to help communities such as Ocoee document their histories. I think that Ocoee is more advanced in its approach to American history than many other towns in the United States. The people of Ocoee are demonstrating a willingness to grapple with their town's history -- and not try to cover it up -- which is more than we can say about the great majority of places in the United States that have experienced this type of racial violence.
Dialogues of this nature are difficult but Ocoee has wisely used a public event -- the celebration of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.-- to bring as many people into the conversation as possible. Instead of turning their back on the past, the people of Ocoee are embracing their history in all of its maddening complexity.
I am reminded again of the words of Professor Ifill who discusses the healing process that may take place as part of the process of this kind of dialog:
"Only the people in those communities can determine what tools should be used and what should take place. The whole community needs to identify what should be addressed and confronted. We wait for some outside force to impose some kind of procedure, some kind of law on us. We should not be waiting. Feelings about race come from what happens in a community, not what happens in Washington, D.C. Communities should look within to recognize and confront those feelings."
Here are relevant excerpts of my address as presented to the participants of the 4th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity Parade and Celebration in Ocoee. The title of this talk was: "Reclaiming the Dream for Everyone in the 21st Century."
"Mayor Vandergrift, City Commissioners, Members of the Human Relations Diversity Board, Sheriff Demings, Brothers and Sisters. Thank you for this great honor, thank you for inviting me to be with you today. To be asked to speak in Ocoee, Florida on the occasion of your community's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration is deep honor that I will always treasure.
Your city deserves congratulations for creating and sustaining an event that helps bring people from all walks of life together in unity and solidarity. The historical significance of being here, of honoring Dr. King's life almost 90 years after the Ocoee Race Riot cannot be overstated.
As the grandson of Hispanic immigrants, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to people of African descent in the United States. The fact that African Americans were willing to risk their lives in order to gain the right to vote, the fact that they kept the faith in a dream that for centuries excluded them, made this society far more free and democratic than ever before.
All Americans, white, black, Hispanic, Asian or otherwise have been the beneficiaries of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. Likewise, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts of the 1960s made it possible for women, working class whites, and new immigrants to go to college and to work in fields that they had been excluded from before.
I have a Ph.D. but I'm not dumb. I well understand that a person such as me, a first-generation college student, doesn't succeed all by himself.
African Americans in Florida and elsewhere shed much blood to win these enhancements of our economic and political rights. The courage of a tenant farmer to stand in line to vote in Ocoee, Florida in 1920 or Selma, Alabama in 1964 makes it possible for me to take my own citizenship rights for granted...
Reclaiming the dream for everyone involves telling the truth about our history. The Election Day Ocoee Race Riot of 1920 was a cataclysmic event in the history of this community. It resulted in the destruction and forced displacement of Ocoee's African American community.
The Ocoee Race Riot also blunted the march of democracy in Central Florida and helped preserve one-party rule in the South for decades to come. We need to understand that what happened here on Election Day in 1920 was not simply an Ocoee story.
All across the South, especially in Florida, African Americans were registering to vote in record numbers in the weeks leading up to Election Day. African Americans had an especially strong argument to make: tens of thousands of them had just served in European trenches or had supported America's efforts in World War I.
The Ocoee Race Riot did not occur in a vacuum. It was part of a larger wave of anti-black race riots that occurred between 1917 and 1923. These riots were aimed against the social progress of black people.
The mass violence was a response to the fact that African Americans were waging effective struggles against segregation and white supremacy. The NAACP was becoming a mass-based organization that was challenging voter restriction laws. Black southerners were also making impressive gains in land ownership.
The media including Hollywood films such as D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, were viciously anti-black and even glorified violence waged against black citizens. Many of the worst race riots were in cities such as St. Louis, Chicago and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hundreds of African Americans were massacred; the loss of property and lives has never been properly accounted for.
Florida's Election Day in 1920 was the single bloodiest day in modern American political history. African Americans throughout Florida who were trying to register as well as to vote were beaten, driven out of their home counties, and assassinated.
What would it have meant on Election Day 1920 if African Americans in Ocoee and elsewhere in Florida had successfully cast their ballots? It would have meant the end of segregation, the end of one-party rule in the South. Just think of it.
Our world today would still be flawed, still far short of living the dream of equal justice for all that Dr. King cherished -- but it would be a much better place. Alas, this is not what happened.
Today, Reclaiming the Dream in the 21st century means reclaiming our history. It means remembering and commemorating the lives lost in the Ocoee Race Riot. You've already taken admirable steps that I find quite breathtaking.
By consistently honoring Dr. King, you honor the best in each of us. Your MLK Day celebrations have also created a crucial space where people can grapple with our shared histories. The University of Florida has much to learn from your efforts.
Mayor Vandergrift, City Commissioners, Members of the Human Relations Diversity Board, I salute you for your work to make this city a place that welcomes all. I would like to humbly suggest that the City of Ocoee, create a public forum on the Ocoee Race Riot for people from all walks of life to share their thoughts, their grief, their hopes, etc.
The point of creating these forums is not to point fingers but to understand. Historical exhibits and monuments do not solve social problems. However, remembrance is the foundation of civilization. What if the Cities of Ocoee and Orlando sponsored a series of initiatives that used the study of the Race Riot as a starting point to explore issues such as race relations, economic empowerment and civic engagement in the 21st century?
Imagine the example that we would set for our forgetful nation if we embraced our history in all of its dimensions and used it to illuminate the way forward. The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida stands ready to assist you in this effort.
Thank You!
Paul Ortiz is author of Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920 (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 2006). Read more…
By Paul Ortiz
"The tendency to ignore the Negro's contribution to American life and to strip him of his personhood, is as old as the earliest history books and as contemporary as the morning's newspaper. To upset this cultural homicide, the Negro must rise up with an affirmation of his own Olympian manhood. Any movement for the Negro's freedom that overlooks this necessity is only waiting to be buried."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Every year, prominent voices urge us to forget Black History Month. Some claim its reverse racism. Others say that Black History makes white people feel bad. Academics have their own concerns. "Pressure group history of any kind is deplorable," Stanford University Professor Thomas A. Bailey intoned [pdf] in 1968, "especially when significant white men are bumped out to make room for less significant black men in the interests of social harmony....The luckless African-Americans while in slavery were essentially in jail; and we would not write the story of a nation in terms of its prison population."
More recently, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Cynthia Tucker argued that "[T]he nation of Tiger Woods, Oprah and Barack Obama no longer needs a Black History Month." When educated people advocate the abolition of Black History Month, it is easy to understand why there are students on the verge of graduating from college who do not understand why placing a hangman's noose in a public space is offensive.
Meanwhile, UC-San Diego students mock Black History Month, and argue that the uses of Jim Crow-era racial epithets at their February "Compton Cookout" gala are not racist.
Instead of being used as a tool to promote freedom, history is relentlessly invoked in order to maintain the status quo. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh understood that equating universal health care with "slavery reparations" would hamper reform efforts.
The Texas State Board of Education recently revised its social studies and history curriculum to give white people a more prominent role in high school textbooks -- while the new standards underplay institutional racism in American society. In tandem with its shameful, anti-immigrant policies, the Arizona State Legislature recently passed a bill designed to cripple ethnic studies curriculums.
Racism is still profitable. It is little wonder that big-business backed politicians would attack efforts to educate students about the contributions of people of color to this society.
Employers use racism to justify paying lower wages to minorities, and they also use racism as a divide-and-conquer tool to keep workers at odds with each other. The longstanding success of these tactics plays a major role in this country's low rates of unionization:
In fiscal year 2009, the EEOC [U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission] received 33,579 charges alleging race-based discrimination [in the workplace] accounting for about 36% percent of the agency's private sector caseload. Historically, race-based charges have been one of the most frequent types of filing with EEOC offices nationwide.
Economic racism comes in many forms. While leafleting in support of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in North Carolina in the late 1990s, I encountered customers in front of grocery stores who brusquely told me that "Mexicans aren't as materialistic as Americans, and don't need as much to live on."
Others informed me that Latinos were like children and just didn't understand how to manage their money. I thought at the time that some foes of FLOC's Mt. Olive Pickle Boycott solaced themselves by creating in their minds a kind of Latino John Henry: a mindless, super-worker who picks those cucumbers and other crops with nary a care about how much they are paid or treated.
The EEOC recently settled a discrimination lawsuit with Big Lots, Inc. that involved a pattern of racial harassment in its distribution center at Rancho Cucamonga, California. "Specifically, the EEOC alleged that an immediate supervisor and co-workers, all Hispanic, made racially derogatory jokes, comments, slurs and epithets, including the use of the words 'n----r' and 'monkey.' Despite learning of the harassment, the company took no steps to prevent or correct it."
Americans are accused of being "ignorant" of history. So who taught these workers to use racial epithets that are rooted in the era of slavery and segregation? I'm sorry, but anyone who claims we live in a post-racial era is a damn fool.
In spite of the labors of scholars such as John Hope Franklin, Howard Zinn, and Rudy Acuña, the vital lessons of anti-racist struggle taught by figures such as Charlotta Bass, Frederick Douglass, and José Marti´ are being lost. Instead, Americans learn a falsified version of history that treats African Americans and Latinos as outsiders or as charitable wards that are placed in "diversity boxes" at the margins of historical textbooks.
One of my former students at UC-Santa Cruz explained: "As a student of African heritage growing up in Santa Cruz, a predominately Caucasian town, the role my ancestors played in the development of the country was never revealed. Slavery was always downplayed in favor of glorifying Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation. How was I to regard my heritage with confidence while the environment I was raised in depicted Africans as nothing but slaves saved by a white man? Believe me no teacher ever let me forget that."
During Black History Month, I was asked the following question by a journalist in Florida: "Why is it so important to integrate the history of African Americans into our culture?" I paused to gather my thoughts. What did the reporter mean by "our culture"? Are African Americans always to be treated as outsiders?
I answered by saying that black history does not need to be integrated into US culture; it is at the center of that culture. Indeed, much of the world learns about America through black expressive arts that were forged by struggling African Americans in plantations and sharecrop farms ranging from New Orleans, Louisiana to Memphis, Tennessee.
Vast numbers of tourists visit Virginia plantations or northern seaports, places where African American labor created the wealth that a young merchant class used to launch the American Revolution. John Hancock said of Crispus Attucks, the first man -- a black man -- to die in the revolutionary cause:
"Who taught the British soldier that he might be defeated? Who dared looking into his eyes? I place, therefore, this Crispus Attucks in the foremost rank of the men that dared."
Black history allows us to better analyze events like the Revolution and the Civil War as well as writers such as William Faulkner, Herman Melville, and Toni Morrison. Each of these novelists--along with many of our best playwrights--were vitally concerned with questions of race, historical memory, and the future of a multiracial society.
In her essay, "Creating a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Lynching," Professor Sherrilyn Ifill reminds us that history shapes our everyday relations long after the guns of the past have been silenced.xii This is true not only of lynching but also for the many incidents of violent theft of black property during the Jim Crow Era. Dr. Ifill served as a featured expert in the documentary film "Banished: American Ethnic Cleansings." In this film, Charles Brown Jr., a descendant of a family driven out of Pierce City, Missouri by white mobs in 1901 commented on the ongoing impact this event has in our own time:
"The Cobb property, as well as the property of every other person of color who owned property in Pierce City, was stolen through adverse possession. The government did not protect the African American citizens of Pierce City on that day in 1901 and did not protect the chain of custody....I am upset because the town has chosen not to openly admit wrongdoing by their ancestors. The town has been collecting taxes on our property since 1902. How can Pierce City say they bear no responsibility? I am hurt, confused and outraged. The rest of my family feels the same way I do."xiii
Given the fact that every level of law enforcement, government, media and society in the 20th century was involved in perpetrating debt peonage, unequal schooling, housing segregation, and other forms of officially sanctioned injustice, where on earth do we get the idea that we today live in a "post-racial" society?
Sherilyn Ifill's call for a Truth and Reconciliation commission on these matters is a refreshing stand for human rights and historical accuracy. She believes that truth-telling could help us achieve a profound transformation in our society. "People say you can't change how people think," Ifill says. "That's absurd. What is the job for the 21st century? This is the job. We can't settle for the veneer of unity."xv
REMEMBRANCE
In the midst of a national euphoria of forgetting, a town called Ocoee, Florida has taken the bold step of remembering an event in the nation's history that many had tried to cover up. On Election Day, November 2, 1920 African Americans in Ocoee and in other parts of Florida sought to cast their ballots for President.
It was a revolutionary act. Black political participation would have shattered the very foundations of legal segregation in the South. A breakthrough in Florida would have accelerated the modern civil rights movement. Some of the greatest activists of the day were involved in this crusade, including James Weldon Johnson, Mary McCleod Bethune, and Walter White.
State and local officials -- along with the Ku Klux Klan -- understood that white supremacy was in trouble. They responded mercilessly. African Americans who tried to go to the polls were attacked, driven out of the state, and assassinated. In several counties, armed Klansmen surrounded courthouses on Election Day to ensure that black Floridians did not vote. In Ocoee, a well-organized group of paramilitaries killed and drove African Americans out of the town. Houses were torched, and refugees streamed out of western Orange County for days.
The NAACP's Walter White estimated that approximately fifty African Americans had been killed. A University of Florida student who interviewed local residents for a history term paper claimed in 1949 that "About thirty to thirty-five [murdered] is the most common estimate of the old timers." Ocoee remained an all-white town for decades.
Ocoee shared much in common with the thousands of other places in America that author James Lowen refers to as "sundown towns." These were areas where white residents colluded to drive African Americans out through coercion and violence in order to steal their land and resources.
Sundown towns were found in every state of the union and most of them were located outside of the South. Some of these all-white municipalities posted signs reading "'n----r' don't let the sun go down on you here," for generations. A resident of Ocoee wrote in 1969, "As recently as ten years ago a sign admonished the Ocoee visitor as he approached the city limits that Negroes and dogs were unwelcome."
Orange County kept the Election Day Riot under wraps. "The position among the old core of the community was: `Let's just not talk about it. What good will it do?'" remembered Rev. Bryan Stamper, the minister of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Ocoee. A critical step forward was taken when area resident--and future mayor -- Lester J. Dabbs pierced the veil of silence by writing his 1969 Stetson University M.A. thesis on the 1920 conflagration. Dabbs's work was titled, "A Report of the Circumstances and Events of the Race Riot on November 2, 1920 in Ocoee, Florida."
In the 1990s, citizens in Ocoee and Orange County organized to acknowledge the riot. These groups, which included the Democracy Forum as well as the West Orange Reconciliation Task Force, did critical work in bringing the massacre into the open, and honoring the victims.
Public discussions of the Election Day riot were fraught with tension as participants disagreed on the proper way to commemorate the event. A catalyst for this debate was the rapidly changing demographics of western Orange County. New generations of African Americans, Hispanics, and others began moving into the area in large numbers in the 1980s. Many of the newcomers genuinely wanted to know what had happened in 1920.
TRAVELING TO OCOEE
In the fall of 2009, I was invited to deliver the keynote address for the city of Ocoee's 2010 Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. It was an invitation I never expected to receive.
I knew that some people in Florida took issue with my depiction of what had occurred in Ocoee in 1920. I believed that stories of the riot were incomplete. Too many accounts did not mention that it had happened on the day of the Presidential Election.
The violence inflicted on African Americans in Ocoee occurred because they were challenging white rule, not because they were breaking the law. I also argued that accounts of the Election Day Riot that promoted a notion that "both sides suffered equally" missed the point that white supremacy was maintained in Ocoee while African Americans were physically driven out of the town.
William Maxwell, chair of Ocoee's Human Relations Diversity Board (HRDB) issued the formal invitation to me to be his city's MLK keynote speaker. In several conversations and emails with Mr. Maxwell leading up to the January 18 Unity Parade and Celebration, I learned that he was a military veteran, and a man of tremendous integrity who sought to use Martin Luther King Day to create a social space where all would feel welcome. The city chose Sheriff Jerry L. Demings, the first ever African American Sheriff of Orange County to be the parade's Marshal.
This was a remarkable experience, and I am still processing the meaning of it. As director of the University of Florida's Oral History Program, a major part of my job is to help communities such as Ocoee document their histories. I think that Ocoee is more advanced in its approach to American history than many other towns in the United States. The people of Ocoee are demonstrating a willingness to grapple with their town's history -- and not try to cover it up -- which is more than we can say about the great majority of places in the United States that have experienced this type of racial violence.
Dialogues of this nature are difficult but Ocoee has wisely used a public event -- the celebration of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.-- to bring as many people into the conversation as possible. Instead of turning their back on the past, the people of Ocoee are embracing their history in all of its maddening complexity.
I am reminded again of the words of Professor Ifill who discusses the healing process that may take place as part of the process of this kind of dialog:
"Only the people in those communities can determine what tools should be used and what should take place. The whole community needs to identify what should be addressed and confronted. We wait for some outside force to impose some kind of procedure, some kind of law on us. We should not be waiting. Feelings about race come from what happens in a community, not what happens in Washington, D.C. Communities should look within to recognize and confront those feelings."
Here are relevant excerpts of my address as presented to the participants of the 4th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Unity Parade and Celebration in Ocoee. The title of this talk was: "Reclaiming the Dream for Everyone in the 21st Century."
"Mayor Vandergrift, City Commissioners, Members of the Human Relations Diversity Board, Sheriff Demings, Brothers and Sisters. Thank you for this great honor, thank you for inviting me to be with you today. To be asked to speak in Ocoee, Florida on the occasion of your community's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration is deep honor that I will always treasure.
Your city deserves congratulations for creating and sustaining an event that helps bring people from all walks of life together in unity and solidarity. The historical significance of being here, of honoring Dr. King's life almost 90 years after the Ocoee Race Riot cannot be overstated.
As the grandson of Hispanic immigrants, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to people of African descent in the United States. The fact that African Americans were willing to risk their lives in order to gain the right to vote, the fact that they kept the faith in a dream that for centuries excluded them, made this society far more free and democratic than ever before.
All Americans, white, black, Hispanic, Asian or otherwise have been the beneficiaries of the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. Likewise, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts of the 1960s made it possible for women, working class whites, and new immigrants to go to college and to work in fields that they had been excluded from before.
I have a Ph.D. but I'm not dumb. I well understand that a person such as me, a first-generation college student, doesn't succeed all by himself.
African Americans in Florida and elsewhere shed much blood to win these enhancements of our economic and political rights. The courage of a tenant farmer to stand in line to vote in Ocoee, Florida in 1920 or Selma, Alabama in 1964 makes it possible for me to take my own citizenship rights for granted...
Reclaiming the dream for everyone involves telling the truth about our history. The Election Day Ocoee Race Riot of 1920 was a cataclysmic event in the history of this community. It resulted in the destruction and forced displacement of Ocoee's African American community.
The Ocoee Race Riot also blunted the march of democracy in Central Florida and helped preserve one-party rule in the South for decades to come. We need to understand that what happened here on Election Day in 1920 was not simply an Ocoee story.
All across the South, especially in Florida, African Americans were registering to vote in record numbers in the weeks leading up to Election Day. African Americans had an especially strong argument to make: tens of thousands of them had just served in European trenches or had supported America's efforts in World War I.
The Ocoee Race Riot did not occur in a vacuum. It was part of a larger wave of anti-black race riots that occurred between 1917 and 1923. These riots were aimed against the social progress of black people.
The mass violence was a response to the fact that African Americans were waging effective struggles against segregation and white supremacy. The NAACP was becoming a mass-based organization that was challenging voter restriction laws. Black southerners were also making impressive gains in land ownership.
The media including Hollywood films such as D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, were viciously anti-black and even glorified violence waged against black citizens. Many of the worst race riots were in cities such as St. Louis, Chicago and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hundreds of African Americans were massacred; the loss of property and lives has never been properly accounted for.
Florida's Election Day in 1920 was the single bloodiest day in modern American political history. African Americans throughout Florida who were trying to register as well as to vote were beaten, driven out of their home counties, and assassinated.
What would it have meant on Election Day 1920 if African Americans in Ocoee and elsewhere in Florida had successfully cast their ballots? It would have meant the end of segregation, the end of one-party rule in the South. Just think of it.
Our world today would still be flawed, still far short of living the dream of equal justice for all that Dr. King cherished -- but it would be a much better place. Alas, this is not what happened.
Today, Reclaiming the Dream in the 21st century means reclaiming our history. It means remembering and commemorating the lives lost in the Ocoee Race Riot. You've already taken admirable steps that I find quite breathtaking.
By consistently honoring Dr. King, you honor the best in each of us. Your MLK Day celebrations have also created a crucial space where people can grapple with our shared histories. The University of Florida has much to learn from your efforts.
Mayor Vandergrift, City Commissioners, Members of the Human Relations Diversity Board, I salute you for your work to make this city a place that welcomes all. I would like to humbly suggest that the City of Ocoee, create a public forum on the Ocoee Race Riot for people from all walks of life to share their thoughts, their grief, their hopes, etc.
The point of creating these forums is not to point fingers but to understand. Historical exhibits and monuments do not solve social problems. However, remembrance is the foundation of civilization. What if the Cities of Ocoee and Orlando sponsored a series of initiatives that used the study of the Race Riot as a starting point to explore issues such as race relations, economic empowerment and civic engagement in the 21st century?
Imagine the example that we would set for our forgetful nation if we embraced our history in all of its dimensions and used it to illuminate the way forward. The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida stands ready to assist you in this effort.
Thank You!
Paul Ortiz is author of Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920 (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 2006). Read more…
The Missing Latinos
The Missing Latinos
May 14, 2010 (From Inside Higher Ed)
A new law in Arizona has set off a national debate over immigration. The newest justice on the Supreme Court is the first Latina in such a position. A profile in Sunday's New York Times Magazine http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/magazine/09Mayor-t.html?pagewanted=1&hp looked at the career of someone who is talked about as the first Latino president of the United States - and who doesn't speak fluent Spanish. Latino populations are among the fastest growing in many parts of the United States.
It's easy to make a case for the increasing importance of Latino issues in understanding U.S. politics. But are college freshmen getting any context for considering these and other developments?
The odds are against it, according to a survey of introductory political science textbooks. The study, published in the journal PS, did page by page analysis of the 29 introductory textbooks in use at American colleges today. Latinos' "overall contributions to the political development of the United States are largely ignored," says the study, by Jessica Lavariega Monforti and Adam McGlynn, both assistant professors of political science at the University of Texas-Pan American.
Among their findings:
In 20 of the textbooks, the pages focused on any Latino political issues was less than 1 percent. (Latinos currently account for about 15 percent of the U.S. population, a share projected to double by 2050, the authors note.)
The highest percentage of content was 3.49 percent.
Many of the texts discuss César Chávez, but for most that's about it for sustained discussion of Latino civil rights leaders or movements. The Latino civil rights movement is portrayed as "a few random events, not as part of an overall movement," the article says. Key figures like Dolóres Huerta rarely appear. Only three of the textbooks studied explained terms such as "Chicano" or "Brown power."
The authors cite considerable research suggesting that, in introductory courses, textbooks are reflections of what students are taught. And since for many students, poli sci 101 (as a general education requirement) will be their entire study of government, these students are unlikely to learn much more about how Latinos fit into the U.S. political system.
The one issue that dominates treatment of Latinos in the text is immigration, the authors find. While not suggesting that immigration should be ignored, the authors note the limitations of having that issue as the sole focus. "Students will walk away from introductory U.S. government textbooks viewing Latinos primarily as immigrants and, in many cases, illegal immigrants rather than politically active and important citizens," Monforti and McGlynn write.
They conclude with a call for textbook authors and editors to rethink their treatment of the ethnic group. "Election and population data show that Latinos/as have and will continue to play a fundamental role in our political system. The discussion of Latinos/as should be pervasive in textbooks by addressing their role in institutions and elections, as well as offering the traditional discourse in civil rights chapters," they write. "To continue to segregate and minimize the discussion of Latinos/as in our textbooks does a disservice to our discipline and our students."
May 14, 2010 (From Inside Higher Ed)
A new law in Arizona has set off a national debate over immigration. The newest justice on the Supreme Court is the first Latina in such a position. A profile in Sunday's New York Times Magazine http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/magazine/09Mayor-t.html?pagewanted=1&hp looked at the career of someone who is talked about as the first Latino president of the United States - and who doesn't speak fluent Spanish. Latino populations are among the fastest growing in many parts of the United States.
It's easy to make a case for the increasing importance of Latino issues in understanding U.S. politics. But are college freshmen getting any context for considering these and other developments?
The odds are against it, according to a survey of introductory political science textbooks. The study, published in the journal PS, did page by page analysis of the 29 introductory textbooks in use at American colleges today. Latinos' "overall contributions to the political development of the United States are largely ignored," says the study, by Jessica Lavariega Monforti and Adam McGlynn, both assistant professors of political science at the University of Texas-Pan American.
Among their findings:
In 20 of the textbooks, the pages focused on any Latino political issues was less than 1 percent. (Latinos currently account for about 15 percent of the U.S. population, a share projected to double by 2050, the authors note.)
The highest percentage of content was 3.49 percent.
Many of the texts discuss César Chávez, but for most that's about it for sustained discussion of Latino civil rights leaders or movements. The Latino civil rights movement is portrayed as "a few random events, not as part of an overall movement," the article says. Key figures like Dolóres Huerta rarely appear. Only three of the textbooks studied explained terms such as "Chicano" or "Brown power."
The authors cite considerable research suggesting that, in introductory courses, textbooks are reflections of what students are taught. And since for many students, poli sci 101 (as a general education requirement) will be their entire study of government, these students are unlikely to learn much more about how Latinos fit into the U.S. political system.
The one issue that dominates treatment of Latinos in the text is immigration, the authors find. While not suggesting that immigration should be ignored, the authors note the limitations of having that issue as the sole focus. "Students will walk away from introductory U.S. government textbooks viewing Latinos primarily as immigrants and, in many cases, illegal immigrants rather than politically active and important citizens," Monforti and McGlynn write.
They conclude with a call for textbook authors and editors to rethink their treatment of the ethnic group. "Election and population data show that Latinos/as have and will continue to play a fundamental role in our political system. The discussion of Latinos/as should be pervasive in textbooks by addressing their role in institutions and elections, as well as offering the traditional discourse in civil rights chapters," they write. "To continue to segregate and minimize the discussion of Latinos/as in our textbooks does a disservice to our discipline and our students."
In Arizona, just say no to Latino heritage
What Robinson gets wrong is that the default in public schooling in Arizona and elsewhere is NOT that children get taught a fair and valid curriculum that fosters a sense of ethnic pride. Quite the opposite. Tucson ISD via Raza Studies is trying to combat a narrow, slanted, and subtractive curriculum that is and has been about denying Mexicans their right to their language, culture, and community-based identities.
I would further add that the ICE policies in the form of government-sanctioned ICE raids that followed Obama into his presidency were never re-considered despite public outcry to this effect. Obama has thus, in effect, "encouraged" states like Arizona to pursue inhumane and unjust policies that however extreme are nevertheless consistent with our government's permissive attitude toward immigration reform.
Immigration is one of those areas of policy that always registers bipartisan support. Remember the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Bill...? Hence, and despite its complexity, there are still enormous possibilities for addressing immigration reform. Plus, it couldn't be more urgent. http://blog.altoarizona.com/blog/boycott-arizona-a-strategy-discussion.html
In Arizona, just say no to Latino heritage
By Eugene Robinson / The Washington Post
Friday, May 14, 2010
At least we don't have to pretend anymore. Arizona's passing of that mean-spirited immigration law wasn't about high-minded principle or the need to maintain public order. Apparently, it was all about putting Latinos in their place.
It's hard to reach any other conclusion given the state's latest swipe at Latinos. On Tuesday, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a measure making it illegal for any course in the public schools to "advocate ethnic solidarity." Arizona's top education official, Tom Horne, fought for the new law as a weapon against a program in Tucson that teaches Mexican American students about their history and culture.
Horne claims the Tucson classes teach "ethnic chauvinism." He has complained that young Mexican Americans are falsely being led to believe that they belong to an oppressed minority. The way to dispel that notion, it seems, is to pass oppressive new legislation aimed squarely at Mexican Americans. That'll teach the kids a lesson, all right: We have power. You don't.
Arizona is already facing criticism and boycotts over its "breathing while Latino" law, which in essence requires police to identify and jail undocumented immigrants. Now the state adds insult to that injury.
The education bill begins with a bizarre piece of nonsense, making it illegal for public or charter schools to offer courses that "promote the overthrow of the United States government." Then it shifts from weird to offensive, prohibiting classes that "promote resentment toward a race or class of people," that "are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group," and that "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." When you try to parse those words, the effect is chilling.
Is it permissible, under the new law, to teach basic history? More than half the students in the Tucson Unified School District are Latino, the great majority of them Mexican American. The land that is now Arizona once belonged to Mexico. Might teaching that fact "promote resentment" among students of Mexican descent? What about a class that taught students how activists fought to end discrimination against Latinos in Arizona and other Western states? Would that illegally encourage students to resent the way their parents and grandparents were treated?
The legislation has an answer: Mexican American students, it seems, should not be taught to be proud of their heritage.
This angry anti-Latino spasm in Arizona is only partly about illegal immigration, which has fallen substantially in the past few years. It's really about fear and denial.
About 30 percent of the state's population is Latino, and that number continues to rise. This demographic shift has induced culture shock among some Arizonans who see the old Anglo power structure losing control. It is evidently threatening, to some people, that Mexican Americans would see themselves as a group with common interests and grievances -- and even more threatening that they might see themselves as distant heirs to the men and women who lived in Arizona long before the first Anglos arrived.
To counter the threat, solidarity among Mexican Americans has to be delegitimized. The group itself has to be atomized -- has to be taught to see itself as a population of unaffiliated individuals. The social, cultural and historical ties that have united people across the border since long before there was a border must be denied.
Every minority group's struggle for acceptance is distinctive, but I can't avoid hearing echoes of the Jim Crow era in the South. Whites went to great lengths to try to keep "agitators" from awakening African Americans' sense of pride and injustice. They failed, just as the new Arizona law will fail.
It's important to distinguish between Arizona officials' legitimate concerns and their illegitimate ones. The state does have a real problem with illegal immigration, and the federal government has ignored its responsibility to enact comprehensive reform that would make the border more secure. But Arizona is lashing out with measures that will not just punish the undocumented but also negatively affect Mexican American citizens whose local roots are generations deep.
The new education law is gratuitous and absurd. Arizona can't be picked up and moved to the Midwest; it's next to Mexico.
There have always been families and traditions that straddle the two societies, and there always will be. Mexican Americans are inevitably going to feel proud of who they are and where they came from -- even if acknowledging and encouraging such pride in the classroom are against the law.
You know kids. They'll just learn it in the street.
eugenerobinson@washpost.com
I would further add that the ICE policies in the form of government-sanctioned ICE raids that followed Obama into his presidency were never re-considered despite public outcry to this effect. Obama has thus, in effect, "encouraged" states like Arizona to pursue inhumane and unjust policies that however extreme are nevertheless consistent with our government's permissive attitude toward immigration reform.
Immigration is one of those areas of policy that always registers bipartisan support. Remember the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Bill...? Hence, and despite its complexity, there are still enormous possibilities for addressing immigration reform. Plus, it couldn't be more urgent. http://blog.altoarizona.com/blog/boycott-arizona-a-strategy-discussion.html
In Arizona, just say no to Latino heritage
By Eugene Robinson / The Washington Post
Friday, May 14, 2010
At least we don't have to pretend anymore. Arizona's passing of that mean-spirited immigration law wasn't about high-minded principle or the need to maintain public order. Apparently, it was all about putting Latinos in their place.
It's hard to reach any other conclusion given the state's latest swipe at Latinos. On Tuesday, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a measure making it illegal for any course in the public schools to "advocate ethnic solidarity." Arizona's top education official, Tom Horne, fought for the new law as a weapon against a program in Tucson that teaches Mexican American students about their history and culture.
Horne claims the Tucson classes teach "ethnic chauvinism." He has complained that young Mexican Americans are falsely being led to believe that they belong to an oppressed minority. The way to dispel that notion, it seems, is to pass oppressive new legislation aimed squarely at Mexican Americans. That'll teach the kids a lesson, all right: We have power. You don't.
Arizona is already facing criticism and boycotts over its "breathing while Latino" law, which in essence requires police to identify and jail undocumented immigrants. Now the state adds insult to that injury.
The education bill begins with a bizarre piece of nonsense, making it illegal for public or charter schools to offer courses that "promote the overthrow of the United States government." Then it shifts from weird to offensive, prohibiting classes that "promote resentment toward a race or class of people," that "are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group," and that "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals." When you try to parse those words, the effect is chilling.
Is it permissible, under the new law, to teach basic history? More than half the students in the Tucson Unified School District are Latino, the great majority of them Mexican American. The land that is now Arizona once belonged to Mexico. Might teaching that fact "promote resentment" among students of Mexican descent? What about a class that taught students how activists fought to end discrimination against Latinos in Arizona and other Western states? Would that illegally encourage students to resent the way their parents and grandparents were treated?
The legislation has an answer: Mexican American students, it seems, should not be taught to be proud of their heritage.
This angry anti-Latino spasm in Arizona is only partly about illegal immigration, which has fallen substantially in the past few years. It's really about fear and denial.
About 30 percent of the state's population is Latino, and that number continues to rise. This demographic shift has induced culture shock among some Arizonans who see the old Anglo power structure losing control. It is evidently threatening, to some people, that Mexican Americans would see themselves as a group with common interests and grievances -- and even more threatening that they might see themselves as distant heirs to the men and women who lived in Arizona long before the first Anglos arrived.
To counter the threat, solidarity among Mexican Americans has to be delegitimized. The group itself has to be atomized -- has to be taught to see itself as a population of unaffiliated individuals. The social, cultural and historical ties that have united people across the border since long before there was a border must be denied.
Every minority group's struggle for acceptance is distinctive, but I can't avoid hearing echoes of the Jim Crow era in the South. Whites went to great lengths to try to keep "agitators" from awakening African Americans' sense of pride and injustice. They failed, just as the new Arizona law will fail.
It's important to distinguish between Arizona officials' legitimate concerns and their illegitimate ones. The state does have a real problem with illegal immigration, and the federal government has ignored its responsibility to enact comprehensive reform that would make the border more secure. But Arizona is lashing out with measures that will not just punish the undocumented but also negatively affect Mexican American citizens whose local roots are generations deep.
The new education law is gratuitous and absurd. Arizona can't be picked up and moved to the Midwest; it's next to Mexico.
There have always been families and traditions that straddle the two societies, and there always will be. Mexican Americans are inevitably going to feel proud of who they are and where they came from -- even if acknowledging and encouraging such pride in the classroom are against the law.
You know kids. They'll just learn it in the street.
eugenerobinson@washpost.com
Texas might adjust 22-student class limit
Texas might adjust 22-student class limit
Lawmaker says limit costs millions; teachers say it boosts performance.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 7:48 p.m. Monday, May 10, 2010
Texas legislators will consider increasing the number of students permitted in lower-grade classes as the state faces an estimated $11 billion budget shortfall going into the 2011 session.
The Dallas Morning News reported Monday that state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston says the 22-student limit is costing school districts "millions and millions of dollars" without any evidence that it boosts student performance.
Leaders of a special legislative committee, Sen. Florence Shapiro of Plano and Rep. Rob Eissler of The Woodlands, say class size standards will be scrutinized.
Teacher groups are preparing to fight any change to the requirement, which limits classes in kindergarten through fourth grade to 22 pupils. They say it's the main cause of student improvement over the past two decades and note that smaller classes are popular with parents. The Texas Education Agency sometimes grants requests for waivers to the rule.
The requirement limiting class sizes was enacted 25 years ago. A new class must be created, with an additional teacher, when a class has 23 or more students.
The legislative committee's recommendations will come as lawmakers deal with what is expected to be a record revenue shortfall estimated at $11 billion to $15 billion.
Lawmaker says limit costs millions; teachers say it boosts performance.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: 7:48 p.m. Monday, May 10, 2010
Texas legislators will consider increasing the number of students permitted in lower-grade classes as the state faces an estimated $11 billion budget shortfall going into the 2011 session.
The Dallas Morning News reported Monday that state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston says the 22-student limit is costing school districts "millions and millions of dollars" without any evidence that it boosts student performance.
Leaders of a special legislative committee, Sen. Florence Shapiro of Plano and Rep. Rob Eissler of The Woodlands, say class size standards will be scrutinized.
Teacher groups are preparing to fight any change to the requirement, which limits classes in kindergarten through fourth grade to 22 pupils. They say it's the main cause of student improvement over the past two decades and note that smaller classes are popular with parents. The Texas Education Agency sometimes grants requests for waivers to the rule.
The requirement limiting class sizes was enacted 25 years ago. A new class must be created, with an additional teacher, when a class has 23 or more students.
The legislative committee's recommendations will come as lawmakers deal with what is expected to be a record revenue shortfall estimated at $11 billion to $15 billion.
"Don't White-Out Our History" Rally
"Don't White-Out Our History" Rally
Wednesday, May 19, at 1:00 p.m.
Texas Education Agency, Austin
Click here to sign-up to attend the rally today!
Don't let the SBOE white-wash history! This rally is scheduled on the eve of the State Board of Education's final vote on the controversial new social studies standards. This is your chance to stand up to the state board.
http://www.tfn.org
Texas State Board of Education
The State Board of Education is the governing body that essentially determines what students learn in Texas public schools. The board is made up of 15 members, with each member elected from a single-member district. The governor appoints one of the board members to serve as chair, and the state Senate must confirm that appointment. The chair's tenure is limited to two consecutive terms.
Join the Texas Freedom Network's Just Educate campaign to reform the State Board of Education.
The board's specific policy authority, set out in statute and the state Constitution, includes the following areas:
establishing statewide curriculum standards for public school courses, including content knowledge and skills students are to master;
reviewing and adopting proposed textbooks for purchase by local school districts and ensuring that those textbooks conform to the statewide curriculum standards;
setting graduation requirements;
determining standards of performance for state-mandated assessment tests;
overseeing the investment of the state’s Permanent School Fund, which is funded through the sale and leasing of vast public
lands as well as royalties derived from mining on those lands;
approving the creation of specific charter schools; and
adopting regulations and standards for adult education programs provided by local school districts and institutions of higher education.
The board has long been a "culture war" battleground, but battles over divisive social issues have increasingly dominated the board's work in recent years. Religious conservatives began a concerted effort to take control of the state board beginning in 1992. Targeting first Democrats and then Republican incumbents, the board's far-right faction has grown in power since that time. In 2006 the faction grew to seven members, and Gov. Rick Perry chose one -- Don McLeroy, R-College Station -- as board chairman in 2007. Even though the state Senate refused to confirm McLeroy's appointment in 2009, the far-right faction continues to wield tremendous influence. In fact, the board continues to lurch from one divisive "culture war" battle to another on issues such as teaching creationism in public school science classes, insisting on abstinence-only policies in sex education, downplaying the contributions of minorities and different cultures in history, and blurring the line separating religion and government.
Many of the battles at the State Board of Education have centered on the development of curriculum standards and the adoption of textbooks. In fact, much of the Texas Freedom Network's efforts since 1995 have been focused on countering the far-right faction's efforts to promote personal and political agendas in curriculum and textbooks.
Social Studies Curriculum Standards
As part of a multi-year overhaul of the state’s curriculum standards for public schools, the State Board of Education is scheduled to adopt new social studies standards in May 2010. The board adopted new English/language arts standards in 2008 and new science standards in 2009. A common thread in all of these debates has the contempt of the board’s far-right faction for the work of the curriculum writing teams. Those teams include classroom teachers, curriculum specialists, scholars and other community members. But the board’s far-right faction has repeatedly worked to throw out or substantially revise the work of the writing teams and use the standards to advance ideological agendas. Click here to learn more about the debate over social studies curriculum standards.
Science Curriculum Revision Recap
During debate over new public school science standards in 2009, the Texas Freedom Network and other supporters of sound science education persuaded a majority of State Board of Education members to strip out a standards requirement that students learn about phony "weaknesses" of evolution. Evolution deniers and supporters of teaching "intelligent design"/creationism have long used that requirement across the country to undermine science instruction in public schools. Unfortunately, far-right pressure groups succeeded in opening the door to other creationist attacks on evolution in science classrooms. Publishers will submit science textbooks based on the new science standards in 2011. TFN will monitor that submission and adoption process and will work to counter efforts to dumb down science instruction on evolution.
Wednesday, May 19, at 1:00 p.m.
Texas Education Agency, Austin
Click here to sign-up to attend the rally today!
Don't let the SBOE white-wash history! This rally is scheduled on the eve of the State Board of Education's final vote on the controversial new social studies standards. This is your chance to stand up to the state board.
http://www.tfn.org
Texas State Board of Education
The State Board of Education is the governing body that essentially determines what students learn in Texas public schools. The board is made up of 15 members, with each member elected from a single-member district. The governor appoints one of the board members to serve as chair, and the state Senate must confirm that appointment. The chair's tenure is limited to two consecutive terms.
Join the Texas Freedom Network's Just Educate campaign to reform the State Board of Education.
The board's specific policy authority, set out in statute and the state Constitution, includes the following areas:
establishing statewide curriculum standards for public school courses, including content knowledge and skills students are to master;
reviewing and adopting proposed textbooks for purchase by local school districts and ensuring that those textbooks conform to the statewide curriculum standards;
setting graduation requirements;
determining standards of performance for state-mandated assessment tests;
overseeing the investment of the state’s Permanent School Fund, which is funded through the sale and leasing of vast public
lands as well as royalties derived from mining on those lands;
approving the creation of specific charter schools; and
adopting regulations and standards for adult education programs provided by local school districts and institutions of higher education.
The board has long been a "culture war" battleground, but battles over divisive social issues have increasingly dominated the board's work in recent years. Religious conservatives began a concerted effort to take control of the state board beginning in 1992. Targeting first Democrats and then Republican incumbents, the board's far-right faction has grown in power since that time. In 2006 the faction grew to seven members, and Gov. Rick Perry chose one -- Don McLeroy, R-College Station -- as board chairman in 2007. Even though the state Senate refused to confirm McLeroy's appointment in 2009, the far-right faction continues to wield tremendous influence. In fact, the board continues to lurch from one divisive "culture war" battle to another on issues such as teaching creationism in public school science classes, insisting on abstinence-only policies in sex education, downplaying the contributions of minorities and different cultures in history, and blurring the line separating religion and government.
Many of the battles at the State Board of Education have centered on the development of curriculum standards and the adoption of textbooks. In fact, much of the Texas Freedom Network's efforts since 1995 have been focused on countering the far-right faction's efforts to promote personal and political agendas in curriculum and textbooks.
Social Studies Curriculum Standards
As part of a multi-year overhaul of the state’s curriculum standards for public schools, the State Board of Education is scheduled to adopt new social studies standards in May 2010. The board adopted new English/language arts standards in 2008 and new science standards in 2009. A common thread in all of these debates has the contempt of the board’s far-right faction for the work of the curriculum writing teams. Those teams include classroom teachers, curriculum specialists, scholars and other community members. But the board’s far-right faction has repeatedly worked to throw out or substantially revise the work of the writing teams and use the standards to advance ideological agendas. Click here to learn more about the debate over social studies curriculum standards.
Science Curriculum Revision Recap
During debate over new public school science standards in 2009, the Texas Freedom Network and other supporters of sound science education persuaded a majority of State Board of Education members to strip out a standards requirement that students learn about phony "weaknesses" of evolution. Evolution deniers and supporters of teaching "intelligent design"/creationism have long used that requirement across the country to undermine science instruction in public schools. Unfortunately, far-right pressure groups succeeded in opening the door to other creationist attacks on evolution in science classrooms. Publishers will submit science textbooks based on the new science standards in 2011. TFN will monitor that submission and adoption process and will work to counter efforts to dumb down science instruction on evolution.
Zero-Basing Public Schools, Free-Basing Education Policy
Dr. Maya Rockeymoore | Huffington Post
Posted: May 17, 2010
There was a tale of two school districts on display at Baltimore's Walter's Art Museum on Saturday morning. The occasion was Congressman Elijah Cummings's annual arts competition--an event in which students from high schools across his Congressional district submit their best work in the hopes of winning the honor of having their art hang in the bowels of the U.S. Capitol for one year.
After the competition was over, a young woman who teaches art in a Baltimore middle school remarked that it was amazing that any of the city's students were competitive given the circumstances. She said at her school, "there were no art supplies except some old spoiled tempera paint and paper when I arrived." When I asked her how she secured the supplies necessary to conduct class, she admitted that she "paid out-of-pocket for some supplies and scavenged for the rest."
She went on to say she had only been teaching for two years and the school district was "zero-basing" her school for the second year in a row. Zero-basing is a practice in which the school district terminates all of the teachers and administrators in a school that is labeled failing and requires them to reapply for their positions for the next academic year. "They are herding teachers and students around like we are cattle...in the hopes that things will eventually get better [on the academic front]," she said.
Midway through our conversation, her boyfriend came over and described a similar scenario at his high school. He said that the honorable mention award that one of his students received was bittersweet since, "they will be closing my high school down at this end of this year [due to academic failure]."
I didn't have time to digest the implications of my conversation with these two committed young art teachers before I began another conversation with the mother of a high school art student in the Howard County Public School System, an affluent district in the Baltimore suburbs. The mother proudly held up her daughter's framed canvas and told me how exciting it was to see her daughter discover her talent. She enthused, "you wouldn't believe the resources they have to support the art students in [my daughter's] school."
The tragic irony in the contrasting accounts is reinforced in Howell S. Baum's new book Brown in Baltimore: School Desegregation and the Limits of Liberalism. In the book, Baum recounts in aching detail the origins and evolution of Baltimore's racially segregated, poorly equipped, and underperforming schools. He discusses the combined effects of wealth disparities, residential segregation, racial anxieties, and the politics of both challenge and accommodation that converged to create a school system that was among the first in the nation to voluntarily "desegregate" following the 1954 Brown decision while also coming under repeated scrutiny from the U.S. Office of Civil Rights in the 1970s for its failure to achieve racial integration.
Although Baum's book is primarily a historical account that offers no policy prescriptions for addressing the school system's current predicament, it does offer an interesting departure from which we can judge the adequacy of the No Child Left Behind law and the Obama Administration's approach to school reform--both of which adopt penalties for schools labeled "failing" or "challenged" without regard to how state and local policies and practices have contributed to deep-seated academic and institutional inequities.
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, which equates the quality of schools with student achievement on reading and math tests, required that schools undergo a series of correctional measures when students failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress on the standardized tests. The "zero-basing" policy employed by Baltimore City Public Schools is a direct result of this federal requirement. It has been widely acknowledged that for many schools NCLB has also resulted in a narrowing of the curriculum that has squeezed out the arts along with other student enrichment opportunities.
Sadly, the Obama Administration's approach to reform is likely to intensify the displacement of Baltimore students and teachers in coming years by embracing mandatory school "turnaround models"--that include variations on firing teachers and administrators and closing down schools--for the lowest performing 5 percent of public schools. Prominent education policy experts Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University and Pedro Noguera of New York University, have been quick to point out that--although well-intentioned--the Administration's proposed turnaround models have no basis in research and are likely to further undermine the educational progress of the primarily low-income students of color attending these schools.
The stories of deprivation shared by the Baltimore City art teachers are consistent with Baum's portrait of a school system that remains separate and unequal. And yet, despite pervasive evidence of systemic inequalities undermining public education in some areas of the country, the Obama Administration has so far failed to leverage its unprecedented federal investment in K-12 education to enhance the competitiveness of these schools by incentivizing states to level resource inequities across districts.
So, what's next for the middle school art teacher? She said that, even though she loves her students, she wouldn't be reapplying to her school next year because she didn't know who the principal would be or whether that person would be committed to the arts. "I feel sorry for my students," she told me. "They know that I won't be around next year and they don't know what's coming next."
Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings is the President and CEO of Global Policy Solutions, a social change strategy firm based in Washington, DC.
Follow Dr. Maya Rockeymoore on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mayarockeymoore
Posted: May 17, 2010
There was a tale of two school districts on display at Baltimore's Walter's Art Museum on Saturday morning. The occasion was Congressman Elijah Cummings's annual arts competition--an event in which students from high schools across his Congressional district submit their best work in the hopes of winning the honor of having their art hang in the bowels of the U.S. Capitol for one year.
After the competition was over, a young woman who teaches art in a Baltimore middle school remarked that it was amazing that any of the city's students were competitive given the circumstances. She said at her school, "there were no art supplies except some old spoiled tempera paint and paper when I arrived." When I asked her how she secured the supplies necessary to conduct class, she admitted that she "paid out-of-pocket for some supplies and scavenged for the rest."
She went on to say she had only been teaching for two years and the school district was "zero-basing" her school for the second year in a row. Zero-basing is a practice in which the school district terminates all of the teachers and administrators in a school that is labeled failing and requires them to reapply for their positions for the next academic year. "They are herding teachers and students around like we are cattle...in the hopes that things will eventually get better [on the academic front]," she said.
Midway through our conversation, her boyfriend came over and described a similar scenario at his high school. He said that the honorable mention award that one of his students received was bittersweet since, "they will be closing my high school down at this end of this year [due to academic failure]."
I didn't have time to digest the implications of my conversation with these two committed young art teachers before I began another conversation with the mother of a high school art student in the Howard County Public School System, an affluent district in the Baltimore suburbs. The mother proudly held up her daughter's framed canvas and told me how exciting it was to see her daughter discover her talent. She enthused, "you wouldn't believe the resources they have to support the art students in [my daughter's] school."
The tragic irony in the contrasting accounts is reinforced in Howell S. Baum's new book Brown in Baltimore: School Desegregation and the Limits of Liberalism. In the book, Baum recounts in aching detail the origins and evolution of Baltimore's racially segregated, poorly equipped, and underperforming schools. He discusses the combined effects of wealth disparities, residential segregation, racial anxieties, and the politics of both challenge and accommodation that converged to create a school system that was among the first in the nation to voluntarily "desegregate" following the 1954 Brown decision while also coming under repeated scrutiny from the U.S. Office of Civil Rights in the 1970s for its failure to achieve racial integration.
Although Baum's book is primarily a historical account that offers no policy prescriptions for addressing the school system's current predicament, it does offer an interesting departure from which we can judge the adequacy of the No Child Left Behind law and the Obama Administration's approach to school reform--both of which adopt penalties for schools labeled "failing" or "challenged" without regard to how state and local policies and practices have contributed to deep-seated academic and institutional inequities.
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, which equates the quality of schools with student achievement on reading and math tests, required that schools undergo a series of correctional measures when students failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress on the standardized tests. The "zero-basing" policy employed by Baltimore City Public Schools is a direct result of this federal requirement. It has been widely acknowledged that for many schools NCLB has also resulted in a narrowing of the curriculum that has squeezed out the arts along with other student enrichment opportunities.
Sadly, the Obama Administration's approach to reform is likely to intensify the displacement of Baltimore students and teachers in coming years by embracing mandatory school "turnaround models"--that include variations on firing teachers and administrators and closing down schools--for the lowest performing 5 percent of public schools. Prominent education policy experts Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University and Pedro Noguera of New York University, have been quick to point out that--although well-intentioned--the Administration's proposed turnaround models have no basis in research and are likely to further undermine the educational progress of the primarily low-income students of color attending these schools.
The stories of deprivation shared by the Baltimore City art teachers are consistent with Baum's portrait of a school system that remains separate and unequal. And yet, despite pervasive evidence of systemic inequalities undermining public education in some areas of the country, the Obama Administration has so far failed to leverage its unprecedented federal investment in K-12 education to enhance the competitiveness of these schools by incentivizing states to level resource inequities across districts.
So, what's next for the middle school art teacher? She said that, even though she loves her students, she wouldn't be reapplying to her school next year because she didn't know who the principal would be or whether that person would be committed to the arts. "I feel sorry for my students," she told me. "They know that I won't be around next year and they don't know what's coming next."
Dr. Maya Rockeymoore Cummings is the President and CEO of Global Policy Solutions, a social change strategy firm based in Washington, DC.
Follow Dr. Maya Rockeymoore on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mayarockeymoore
Saturday, May 15, 2010
2008 ACS Data Tool: Language & Education Characteristics
We are pleased to be able to share with you the most up-to-date language and education characteristics of immigrants and the native born in each state and the United States overall. For our updated Fact Sheets, simply go to the 2008 ACS/Census tool, select a state, and then choose the "Language & Education Characteristics" fact sheet.
The remaining two Fact Sheets on the foreign born - covering workforce and income & poverty statistics - also will be updated with data from the 2008 American Community Survey in the coming months.
The "Language & Education Characteristics" Fact Sheets allow you to find out many interesting statistics about immigrants (i.e., persons with no US citizenship at birth; aka the foreign born):
* In 2008, 52.1 percent of the 37.7 million immigrants age 5 and older living in the United States were limited English proficient (LEP), which is defined as persons age 5 and older who reported speaking English "not at all," "not well," or "well." Nearly two-thirds of all foreign born who were LEP in 2008 resided in California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois.
* The foreign-born LEP population grew more than 60 percent between 2000 and 2008 in South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, and Nevada. In comparison, the size of the national immigrant LEP population increased 25.3 percent during the same period.
* Naturalized US citizens were much less likely to be limited English proficient than noncitizens, 39.1 percent compared to 62.0 percent.
* Among immigrant adults, 27.1 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher compared to 27.8 percent for the native born. In contrast, the share of adults with less than a high school diploma was much higher among the foreign born (32.5 percent) than among the native born (11.7 percent).
* Foreign-born adults in the District of Columbia, West Virginia, and Maryland were significantly more educated (41 percent or more had at least a bachelor's degree) than foreign-born adults in rest of the nation (27.1 percent). In contrast, half of the foreign-born adults in New Mexico had no high school diploma.
For more information, go to the 2008 ACS/Census tool and select the desired state.
The remaining two Fact Sheets on the foreign born - covering workforce and income & poverty statistics - also will be updated with data from the 2008 American Community Survey in the coming months.
The "Language & Education Characteristics" Fact Sheets allow you to find out many interesting statistics about immigrants (i.e., persons with no US citizenship at birth; aka the foreign born):
* In 2008, 52.1 percent of the 37.7 million immigrants age 5 and older living in the United States were limited English proficient (LEP), which is defined as persons age 5 and older who reported speaking English "not at all," "not well," or "well." Nearly two-thirds of all foreign born who were LEP in 2008 resided in California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois.
* The foreign-born LEP population grew more than 60 percent between 2000 and 2008 in South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, and Nevada. In comparison, the size of the national immigrant LEP population increased 25.3 percent during the same period.
* Naturalized US citizens were much less likely to be limited English proficient than noncitizens, 39.1 percent compared to 62.0 percent.
* Among immigrant adults, 27.1 percent had a bachelor's degree or higher compared to 27.8 percent for the native born. In contrast, the share of adults with less than a high school diploma was much higher among the foreign born (32.5 percent) than among the native born (11.7 percent).
* Foreign-born adults in the District of Columbia, West Virginia, and Maryland were significantly more educated (41 percent or more had at least a bachelor's degree) than foreign-born adults in rest of the nation (27.1 percent). In contrast, half of the foreign-born adults in New Mexico had no high school diploma.
For more information, go to the 2008 ACS/Census tool and select the desired state.
Escalating Evidence on Charter Segregation
Check out the full study here.
-Patricia
Education and the Public Interest Center
February 9, 2010
On heels of UCLA study, new study finds charter schools operated by corporations are segregated by race, income, disability and language
Contact: Gary Miron, report co-author - (269) 599-7965; gary.miron@wmich.edu
Kevin Welner, director, EPIC - (303) 492-8370; kevin.welner@colorado.edu
Report url: http://epicpolicy.org/publication/schools-without-diversity
BOULDER, Colo., and TEMPE, Ariz. (Feb. 9, 2010) -- Today the Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU) at Arizona State University released a study that examines enrollment patterns in schools operated by Education Management Organizations. Schools without Diversity: Education Management Organizations, Charter Schools, and the Demographic Stratification of the American School System finds these schools segregated by race, family income, disabilities, and English language learner status. As compared with the public school district in which these charter schools reside, they are substantially more segregated, and the strong segregative pattern found in 2001 is virtually unchanged through 2007.
The report finds that charter schools tend to be strongly concentrated in racial or ethnic terms compared to the districts that send students to those schools. The charter schools in the study draw their students from the extremes of family income, divided into either largely high-income or largely low-income populations. Additionally, more than half of these privately managed schools enrolled far fewer English language learners and students with special needs than did their home districts.
The study comes to conclusions remarkably similar to another nationwide study released last week by UCLA's Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles. The two studies, conducted independently using different data, different researchers, and different methods, both found that charter schools segregate.
The EMO study is particularly important because the Obama administration has placed a great deal of faith in the scaling up of nonprofit EMOs (sometimes called Charter Management Organizations, or CMOs) as part of the administration's turnaround strategy. This findings of this new study suggests that these policies have the very real potential to be harmful to the nation's social and educational interests.
"Charter schools were originally intended to provide distinctive learning environments," observes the report's lead author, Professor Gary Miron of Western Michigan University. "As it turns out, what is often most distinctive about charters is the composition of their student bodies." The schools show evidence both of White flight and of minority flight. "Parents are selecting schools where their child will experience less diversity," says Miron.
A primary reaction to the UCLA study from charter advocates quoted in newspaper articles has been to dismiss the importance of segregation and to argue that the key issue is results. Kevin Welner, director of the EPIC policy center at CU-Boulder, worries that this is a return to the "separate but equal" standard that was supplanted by the conclusion in Brown v. Board that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. "Even assuming that this might be a conversation worth (again) having, the reality is that charter schools as a whole do not appear to generate improved test scores," Welner explains. "We are getting the harms of segregation without any significant achievement benefits. It is imperative that we address these two issues together. We should approach charter schools with the foundational understanding that diversity and high achievement are mutually reinforcing and then structure our charter policies accordingly."
The Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU) at Arizona State University collaborate to produce policy briefs and think tank reviews. Our goal is to promote well-informed democratic deliberation about education policy by providing academic as well as non-academic audiences with useful information and high quality analyses. This policy brief was made possible in part by the generous support of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.
-Patricia
Education and the Public Interest Center
February 9, 2010
On heels of UCLA study, new study finds charter schools operated by corporations are segregated by race, income, disability and language
Contact: Gary Miron, report co-author - (269) 599-7965; gary.miron@wmich.edu
Kevin Welner, director, EPIC - (303) 492-8370; kevin.welner@colorado.edu
Report url: http://epicpolicy.org/publication/schools-without-diversity
BOULDER, Colo., and TEMPE, Ariz. (Feb. 9, 2010) -- Today the Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU) at Arizona State University released a study that examines enrollment patterns in schools operated by Education Management Organizations. Schools without Diversity: Education Management Organizations, Charter Schools, and the Demographic Stratification of the American School System finds these schools segregated by race, family income, disabilities, and English language learner status. As compared with the public school district in which these charter schools reside, they are substantially more segregated, and the strong segregative pattern found in 2001 is virtually unchanged through 2007.
The report finds that charter schools tend to be strongly concentrated in racial or ethnic terms compared to the districts that send students to those schools. The charter schools in the study draw their students from the extremes of family income, divided into either largely high-income or largely low-income populations. Additionally, more than half of these privately managed schools enrolled far fewer English language learners and students with special needs than did their home districts.
The study comes to conclusions remarkably similar to another nationwide study released last week by UCLA's Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles. The two studies, conducted independently using different data, different researchers, and different methods, both found that charter schools segregate.
The EMO study is particularly important because the Obama administration has placed a great deal of faith in the scaling up of nonprofit EMOs (sometimes called Charter Management Organizations, or CMOs) as part of the administration's turnaround strategy. This findings of this new study suggests that these policies have the very real potential to be harmful to the nation's social and educational interests.
"Charter schools were originally intended to provide distinctive learning environments," observes the report's lead author, Professor Gary Miron of Western Michigan University. "As it turns out, what is often most distinctive about charters is the composition of their student bodies." The schools show evidence both of White flight and of minority flight. "Parents are selecting schools where their child will experience less diversity," says Miron.
A primary reaction to the UCLA study from charter advocates quoted in newspaper articles has been to dismiss the importance of segregation and to argue that the key issue is results. Kevin Welner, director of the EPIC policy center at CU-Boulder, worries that this is a return to the "separate but equal" standard that was supplanted by the conclusion in Brown v. Board that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. "Even assuming that this might be a conversation worth (again) having, the reality is that charter schools as a whole do not appear to generate improved test scores," Welner explains. "We are getting the harms of segregation without any significant achievement benefits. It is imperative that we address these two issues together. We should approach charter schools with the foundational understanding that diversity and high achievement are mutually reinforcing and then structure our charter policies accordingly."
The Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC) at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Education Policy Research Unit (EPRU) at Arizona State University collaborate to produce policy briefs and think tank reviews. Our goal is to promote well-informed democratic deliberation about education policy by providing academic as well as non-academic audiences with useful information and high quality analyses. This policy brief was made possible in part by the generous support of the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.
Young Latino Children Show Strong Classroom Skills, Despite Many Growing Up in Poverty
A couple notable findings:
“Culture and language growth play a huge role in boosting achievement, which we now see benefit many Latino children.”
"those attending highly segregated or violent schools went downhill in their own school achievement (Suárez-Orosco and others).
-Patricia
The American Psychological Association
May 3, 2010
But for teens, peer pressure, mediocre schools undercut initial gains.
WASHINGTON – Immigrant Latinos display strong parenting practices and raise socially agile children, but these early gains are likely to be eroded by mediocre schools and peer pressure in poor neighborhoods, according to findings published by the American Psychological Association.
In a special section of the journal Developmental Psychology, a team of researchers examines how no-nonsense parenting practices – especially Latino traditions of strict discipline, respect for adults and strong family bonds – shape children’s social and cognitive growth and their assimilation into mainstream culture.
“Immigrant kids begin school with surprisingly good social skills, eager to engage teachers and classroom tasks, even though many are raised in poor households,” said Bruce Fuller, PhD, of the University of California at Berkeley, who co-edited the special section. “This stems from tight families and tough-headed parenting. Our findings shatter the myth that immigrant or low-income parents necessarily produce troubled children.”
One study, based on 19,500 kindergartners nationwide, found that Latino children engaged in classroom activities and displayed cooperative skills at levels equal to those of white non-Latino children, despite vast differences in family income between the groups. In addition, Latino children’s social skills contributed to their learning about numbers and mathematical concepts during this first year of school, the researchers found.
But children’s social agility and classroom enthusiasm often wanes by middle school, according to the researchers. “These children benefit from a strong foundation against outside negative forces, which contributes to their early school achievement but fades over time, especially during adolescence,” said Cynthia GarcÃa Coll, PhD, of Brown University, co-editor of the special section. “Assimilation places many children at risk of losing tight bonds to family and [experiencing] school failure.”
The national study of Latino kindergartners included teacher reports of five social competencies: engaged approaches to learning, self-control, interpersonal skills, internalized problem behaviors (anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem) and externalized problem behaviors (propensity to argue, get angry, act impulsively). “Those Latino children who were the best at focusing on learning tasks showed the steepest learning curves in math,” said Claudia Galindo, PhD, a University of Maryland professor who co-directed the study.
Children from African-American homes did not show comparable levels of classroom engagement and social agility. “Poverty alone does not explain the strength of parenting or the social assets that children bring to school,” Fuller said. “Culture and language growth play a huge role in boosting achievement, which we now see benefit many Latino children.”
Children from Puerto Rican families, in contrast to those of Mexican heritage, showed disparities in social competence when compared to white non-Latino children. Children of Cuban or South American descent (whose parents had higher education levels, on average) showed equal competence when compared to white non-Latino children.
Two additional studies in the journal’s special section show how early gains for Latino children can be undercut during adolescence through peer pressure, weak schools and the perception of ethnic discrimination. In the first study, Latino teens who pulled away from parents and their ethnic identity displayed weaker school engagement (Umaña-Taylor and Guimond). When teens perceived ethnic or racial discrimination, they tended to retain stronger family ties that strengthened their ethnic identity, the researchers found.
The second study – tracking 294 older Latino and Asian immigrant children – found that those attending highly segregated or violent schools went downhill in their own school achievement (Suárez-Orosco and others). The rising rate of single-parent families in many immigrant communities is associated with a drop in children’s school performance.
Other findings include:
* Young Latino children’s enthusiasm and agility in classrooms stems from warm yet firm parenting practices (Livas-Dlott and others). Researchers observed 25 Mexican-American 4-year-olds inside their homes and found that mothers on average were clear and direct when children misbehaved or failed to complete an assigned task. This tough-love parenting occurred within a supportive climate, nurturing cooperative children who expressed mutual obligations to family members, researchers said.
* Another study shows how strong customs from one’s native country can promote learning by teaching children to pay attention to what is going on in front of them (Lopez and others). Researchers gave instructions to 38 6- to 11-year-old siblings in order to examine differences in learning processes between those raised under Mexican traditions and those raised by parents who practiced American customs. Children paid more attention to their siblings’ activities and learned a novel task more readily when living in homes where Mexican customs were practiced. Children paid less attention to their siblings, and learned less, when living in homes where Western traditions and individualistic practices prevailed.
* Researchers surveyed 15,362 African-American, Latino and Asian tenth- graders from 752 schools about their understanding of how racial and socioeconomic barriers affect their expectations for well-paying jobs (Diemer and others). Two years later, the researchers asked the students about their extracurricular activities, school achievement, community participation and vocational expectations. Reading and math achievement had the strongest effect on the students’ expectation of winning high-paying jobs, while awareness of racial and economic barriers had the strongest effect on the value that students placed on work.
Articles in the special section
Citation information: "Latino Children and Families: Development in Cultural Context," Developmental Psychology, Vol. 46, No. 3.
“Learning From Latinos: Contexts, Families, and Child Development in Motion: Introduction to the Special Section” (PDF, 74KB)
Contact Bruce Fuller by phone at 415-595-4320 (cell); or contact Cynthia Garcia Coll by e-mail or by phone 401-447-4590 (cell).
“The Social Competence of Latino Kindergartners and Growth in Mathematical Understanding” (PDF, 117KB)
Contact Claudia Galindo by e-mail or by phone at 814-876-0683.
“Sociopolitical Development, Work Salience, and Vocational Expectations Among Low Socioeconomic Status African American, Latin American, and Asian American Youth” (PDF, 180KB)
Contact Matthew A. Diemer by e-mail or by phone at 517-614-9274.
“Attention to Instruction Directed to Another by U.S. Mexican-Heritage Children of Varying Cultural Backgrounds” (PDF, 155KB) Contact Angelica Lopez by e-mail or by phone at 831-459-2002.
“Academic Trajectories of Newcomer Immigrant Youth” (PDF, 158KB)
Contact Carola Suarez-Orozco by e-mail or by phone at 718-431-4232 or 609-734-8266.
“Commands, Competence, and Carino: Maternal Socialization Practices in Mexican American Families” (PDF, 133KB)
Contact Alejandra Livas-Dlott by e-mail or by phone at 919-608-4007.
“A Longitudinal Examination of Parenting Behaviors and Perceived Discrimination Predicting Latino Adolescents’ Ethnic Identity” (PDF, 171KB)
Contact Adriana J. Umana-Taylor by e-mail or by phone at 480-727-8670.
“Culture and language growth play a huge role in boosting achievement, which we now see benefit many Latino children.”
"those attending highly segregated or violent schools went downhill in their own school achievement (Suárez-Orosco and others).
-Patricia
The American Psychological Association
May 3, 2010
But for teens, peer pressure, mediocre schools undercut initial gains.
WASHINGTON – Immigrant Latinos display strong parenting practices and raise socially agile children, but these early gains are likely to be eroded by mediocre schools and peer pressure in poor neighborhoods, according to findings published by the American Psychological Association.
In a special section of the journal Developmental Psychology, a team of researchers examines how no-nonsense parenting practices – especially Latino traditions of strict discipline, respect for adults and strong family bonds – shape children’s social and cognitive growth and their assimilation into mainstream culture.
“Immigrant kids begin school with surprisingly good social skills, eager to engage teachers and classroom tasks, even though many are raised in poor households,” said Bruce Fuller, PhD, of the University of California at Berkeley, who co-edited the special section. “This stems from tight families and tough-headed parenting. Our findings shatter the myth that immigrant or low-income parents necessarily produce troubled children.”
One study, based on 19,500 kindergartners nationwide, found that Latino children engaged in classroom activities and displayed cooperative skills at levels equal to those of white non-Latino children, despite vast differences in family income between the groups. In addition, Latino children’s social skills contributed to their learning about numbers and mathematical concepts during this first year of school, the researchers found.
But children’s social agility and classroom enthusiasm often wanes by middle school, according to the researchers. “These children benefit from a strong foundation against outside negative forces, which contributes to their early school achievement but fades over time, especially during adolescence,” said Cynthia GarcÃa Coll, PhD, of Brown University, co-editor of the special section. “Assimilation places many children at risk of losing tight bonds to family and [experiencing] school failure.”
The national study of Latino kindergartners included teacher reports of five social competencies: engaged approaches to learning, self-control, interpersonal skills, internalized problem behaviors (anxiety, loneliness, low self-esteem) and externalized problem behaviors (propensity to argue, get angry, act impulsively). “Those Latino children who were the best at focusing on learning tasks showed the steepest learning curves in math,” said Claudia Galindo, PhD, a University of Maryland professor who co-directed the study.
Children from African-American homes did not show comparable levels of classroom engagement and social agility. “Poverty alone does not explain the strength of parenting or the social assets that children bring to school,” Fuller said. “Culture and language growth play a huge role in boosting achievement, which we now see benefit many Latino children.”
Children from Puerto Rican families, in contrast to those of Mexican heritage, showed disparities in social competence when compared to white non-Latino children. Children of Cuban or South American descent (whose parents had higher education levels, on average) showed equal competence when compared to white non-Latino children.
Two additional studies in the journal’s special section show how early gains for Latino children can be undercut during adolescence through peer pressure, weak schools and the perception of ethnic discrimination. In the first study, Latino teens who pulled away from parents and their ethnic identity displayed weaker school engagement (Umaña-Taylor and Guimond). When teens perceived ethnic or racial discrimination, they tended to retain stronger family ties that strengthened their ethnic identity, the researchers found.
The second study – tracking 294 older Latino and Asian immigrant children – found that those attending highly segregated or violent schools went downhill in their own school achievement (Suárez-Orosco and others). The rising rate of single-parent families in many immigrant communities is associated with a drop in children’s school performance.
Other findings include:
* Young Latino children’s enthusiasm and agility in classrooms stems from warm yet firm parenting practices (Livas-Dlott and others). Researchers observed 25 Mexican-American 4-year-olds inside their homes and found that mothers on average were clear and direct when children misbehaved or failed to complete an assigned task. This tough-love parenting occurred within a supportive climate, nurturing cooperative children who expressed mutual obligations to family members, researchers said.
* Another study shows how strong customs from one’s native country can promote learning by teaching children to pay attention to what is going on in front of them (Lopez and others). Researchers gave instructions to 38 6- to 11-year-old siblings in order to examine differences in learning processes between those raised under Mexican traditions and those raised by parents who practiced American customs. Children paid more attention to their siblings’ activities and learned a novel task more readily when living in homes where Mexican customs were practiced. Children paid less attention to their siblings, and learned less, when living in homes where Western traditions and individualistic practices prevailed.
* Researchers surveyed 15,362 African-American, Latino and Asian tenth- graders from 752 schools about their understanding of how racial and socioeconomic barriers affect their expectations for well-paying jobs (Diemer and others). Two years later, the researchers asked the students about their extracurricular activities, school achievement, community participation and vocational expectations. Reading and math achievement had the strongest effect on the students’ expectation of winning high-paying jobs, while awareness of racial and economic barriers had the strongest effect on the value that students placed on work.
Articles in the special section
Citation information: "Latino Children and Families: Development in Cultural Context," Developmental Psychology, Vol. 46, No. 3.
“Learning From Latinos: Contexts, Families, and Child Development in Motion: Introduction to the Special Section” (PDF, 74KB)
Contact Bruce Fuller by phone at 415-595-4320 (cell); or contact Cynthia Garcia Coll by e-mail or by phone 401-447-4590 (cell).
“The Social Competence of Latino Kindergartners and Growth in Mathematical Understanding” (PDF, 117KB)
Contact Claudia Galindo by e-mail or by phone at 814-876-0683.
“Sociopolitical Development, Work Salience, and Vocational Expectations Among Low Socioeconomic Status African American, Latin American, and Asian American Youth” (PDF, 180KB)
Contact Matthew A. Diemer by e-mail or by phone at 517-614-9274.
“Attention to Instruction Directed to Another by U.S. Mexican-Heritage Children of Varying Cultural Backgrounds” (PDF, 155KB) Contact Angelica Lopez by e-mail or by phone at 831-459-2002.
“Academic Trajectories of Newcomer Immigrant Youth” (PDF, 158KB)
Contact Carola Suarez-Orozco by e-mail or by phone at 718-431-4232 or 609-734-8266.
“Commands, Competence, and Carino: Maternal Socialization Practices in Mexican American Families” (PDF, 133KB)
Contact Alejandra Livas-Dlott by e-mail or by phone at 919-608-4007.
“A Longitudinal Examination of Parenting Behaviors and Perceived Discrimination Predicting Latino Adolescents’ Ethnic Identity” (PDF, 171KB)
Contact Adriana J. Umana-Taylor by e-mail or by phone at 480-727-8670.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Arizona Students Protest New Law Banning Ethnic Studies Classes
Just three weeks after signing a highly controversial anti-immigrant bill that orders police officers to stop and interrogate anyone they suspect is an undocumented immigrant, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has signed a new law banning ethnic studies in Arizona public schools. The law could shut down a popular Mexican American studies program in the Tucson school district. It will also affect specialized courses in African American and Native American studies. In response, students have taken to the streets to voice their opposition to the bill. On Wednesday, fifteen people, most of them students, were arrested protesting the law at the state offices of education in Tucson.
Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) condemns Arizona’s SB 1070
Powerful statement. -Angela
Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) condemns Arizona’s SB 1070, “Immigration; law enforcement; safe neighborhoods,” signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23, 2010. We join with the many academic, research, and activist organizations that have called for a targeted boycott of Arizona as a protest to this repressive and unconstitutional piece of legislation.
For the first time in its 24-year history, the MALCS Summer Institute was to be held in Arizona. It was scheduled for July 21-24 and organized by Arizona State University. After deliberating about the implications of the law with our members and receiving an appropriate response from them, we have decided the following.
MALCS joins the targeted boycott of Arizona and will not hold the 2010 MALCS Summer Institute as planned.
Instead, conference planners at ASU will proceed with a statewide conference to address the significant issues of human, women’s, LGBT rights violations, repression, and harassment facing Chicana, Latina, and Native people in Arizona.
The national organization will seek an alternative date and site for its next institute.
The national organization encourages all to take concrete action in support of the activists, academics, and artists in Arizona resisting SB 1070 and work to prevent similar legislation in other states.
This dual action by MALCS—to join the targeted boycott of Arizona and to support the activists—is an extension of our organization’s history of activism. MALCS, made up of Chicana, Latina, and Native American activists, scholars and artists from all across the country, proudly claims our record of activism for social justice. We have supported the action of the students and youth who have protested with sit-ins and marches; we have participated in the marches and rallies across the nation; in our communities, schools and campuses, we have been active proponents for fair and just immigration reform legislation.
We pay tribute to the members of the Arizona Site Committee and other activists for their persistent work at the forefront for social justice. In addition to dealing with anti-immigrant hysteria, activists have been involved in a relentless cultural war involving Arizona schools. Over the past few years, they have had to defend Tucson Unified School District’s Raza Studies program. One week after the anti-immigrant bill was passed, HB 2281, which calls for eliminating ethnic studies, was also legislated.
The ASU Site Executive Committee has been diligently working for the past 10 months organizing the Summer Institute. The co-chairs and members of the site committee raised $15,000, planned the plenaries, and instituted a program track for youth. The theme of the Institute “Derechos Humanos: (Re)Claiming Our Dreams Across Contested Terrains” articulated the interrelationship between human rights and the urgent need to reclaim contested terrains and Indigenous homelands in light of the ongoing anti-immigrant and xenophobic legislation in the state. The site committee recognized that dreams in our communities all too often go unrealized. The paucity of economic security compounded by limited access to education, health care, urban survival, and civil rights was a call to reflect, theorize, and organize to challenge the powers and inequalities prevailing in our communities and institutions. By contested terrains, the site committee acknowledged the embattled contradictory borders and spaces of our everyday lives in geographical, spiritual, ideological, epistemological, political, and cultural arenas. In doing so, they claimed their rights to dream, and to instill those dreams in our loved ones and to honor the dreams of those who preceded us. In order to fully learn from each other, they instituted a youth track to inspire and forge cross-generational ties. In the spirit of this institute they invited scholars, activists, cultural workers, artists, students, and community members to join then in envisioning the possibilities and actualizing social change. In short, ASU site committee members, fully aware of Arizona politics, were already set to challenge the anti-Latina/o and Indigenous climate in Arizona.
In this national economic climate of budget cuts and the loss of jobs, at a time when Wall Street must account for its deeds, the anti-human-rights legislation of SB 1070 illustrates a historical pathology of targeting immigrants who are used as scapegoats during national economic crisis. Even worse, other state representatives across the country have stated that they will introduce similar legislation in their respective states.
U.S. Congressman Raul Grijalva has called for a nationwide and international economic boycott of the state of Arizona. This boycott is directed towards corporations, tourism, major economic activity in the state and the state government. It calls on organizations to refrain from choosing Arizona as a convention or meeting site, etc. At another critical moment in history, Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers, considered the process and product of the social action in response to injustice, he stated:
My major concern is not this particular Arizona law.... My concern is the spirit of fear that lies behind such laws in the hearts of growers and legislators across the country. Somehow these powerful men and women must be helped to realize that there is nothing to fear from treating their workers as fellow human beings. We do not seek to destroy the growers. We only wish an opportunity to organize our union and to work nonviolently to bring a new day of hope and justice to the farm workers of our country. It is long overdue and surely it is not too much to ask. Justice for farmworkers is our only goal; it is the goal of our nonviolent lettuce boycott. Will you help us by making a commitment not to eat or buy lettuce. This is a small sacrifice that can bring a great change for migrant farm workers. I ask for your prayers and your continued help in our struggle."
His letter, written in 1972, was entitled “Do We Exist?” It underscored the complexity before all human rights activists when assessing tactics and strategies. MALCS members believe that we must send a message to the state of Arizona: we will not spend our time and money to support a state that enacts such repressive measures. With approximately 300 members attending the institute, Arizona will lose about $300,000 in revenue from MALCS members. At the same time, we want to send a message to our colleagues in Arizona: we will continue to support your efforts for social justice. We recognize that national figures such as Shakira, Al Sharpton, Danny Glover, and Jesse Jackson have traveled to Arizona to join local activists in the fight against SB 1070. As democratic movement organizers call for action on the ground floor, MALCS will continue to develop nationwide strategies to support them. We are calling on all members to support the National Day of Action Against SB 1070.
Finally, in our commitment to social justice and women’s rights and to counter similar legislation in other states, MALCS will work with organizers in any state that passes legislation or ballot propositions that promote xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, racism, and classism.
Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) condemns Arizona’s SB 1070, “Immigration; law enforcement; safe neighborhoods,” signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23, 2010. We join with the many academic, research, and activist organizations that have called for a targeted boycott of Arizona as a protest to this repressive and unconstitutional piece of legislation.
For the first time in its 24-year history, the MALCS Summer Institute was to be held in Arizona. It was scheduled for July 21-24 and organized by Arizona State University. After deliberating about the implications of the law with our members and receiving an appropriate response from them, we have decided the following.
MALCS joins the targeted boycott of Arizona and will not hold the 2010 MALCS Summer Institute as planned.
Instead, conference planners at ASU will proceed with a statewide conference to address the significant issues of human, women’s, LGBT rights violations, repression, and harassment facing Chicana, Latina, and Native people in Arizona.
The national organization will seek an alternative date and site for its next institute.
The national organization encourages all to take concrete action in support of the activists, academics, and artists in Arizona resisting SB 1070 and work to prevent similar legislation in other states.
This dual action by MALCS—to join the targeted boycott of Arizona and to support the activists—is an extension of our organization’s history of activism. MALCS, made up of Chicana, Latina, and Native American activists, scholars and artists from all across the country, proudly claims our record of activism for social justice. We have supported the action of the students and youth who have protested with sit-ins and marches; we have participated in the marches and rallies across the nation; in our communities, schools and campuses, we have been active proponents for fair and just immigration reform legislation.
We pay tribute to the members of the Arizona Site Committee and other activists for their persistent work at the forefront for social justice. In addition to dealing with anti-immigrant hysteria, activists have been involved in a relentless cultural war involving Arizona schools. Over the past few years, they have had to defend Tucson Unified School District’s Raza Studies program. One week after the anti-immigrant bill was passed, HB 2281, which calls for eliminating ethnic studies, was also legislated.
The ASU Site Executive Committee has been diligently working for the past 10 months organizing the Summer Institute. The co-chairs and members of the site committee raised $15,000, planned the plenaries, and instituted a program track for youth. The theme of the Institute “Derechos Humanos: (Re)Claiming Our Dreams Across Contested Terrains” articulated the interrelationship between human rights and the urgent need to reclaim contested terrains and Indigenous homelands in light of the ongoing anti-immigrant and xenophobic legislation in the state. The site committee recognized that dreams in our communities all too often go unrealized. The paucity of economic security compounded by limited access to education, health care, urban survival, and civil rights was a call to reflect, theorize, and organize to challenge the powers and inequalities prevailing in our communities and institutions. By contested terrains, the site committee acknowledged the embattled contradictory borders and spaces of our everyday lives in geographical, spiritual, ideological, epistemological, political, and cultural arenas. In doing so, they claimed their rights to dream, and to instill those dreams in our loved ones and to honor the dreams of those who preceded us. In order to fully learn from each other, they instituted a youth track to inspire and forge cross-generational ties. In the spirit of this institute they invited scholars, activists, cultural workers, artists, students, and community members to join then in envisioning the possibilities and actualizing social change. In short, ASU site committee members, fully aware of Arizona politics, were already set to challenge the anti-Latina/o and Indigenous climate in Arizona.
In this national economic climate of budget cuts and the loss of jobs, at a time when Wall Street must account for its deeds, the anti-human-rights legislation of SB 1070 illustrates a historical pathology of targeting immigrants who are used as scapegoats during national economic crisis. Even worse, other state representatives across the country have stated that they will introduce similar legislation in their respective states.
U.S. Congressman Raul Grijalva has called for a nationwide and international economic boycott of the state of Arizona. This boycott is directed towards corporations, tourism, major economic activity in the state and the state government. It calls on organizations to refrain from choosing Arizona as a convention or meeting site, etc. At another critical moment in history, Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers, considered the process and product of the social action in response to injustice, he stated:
My major concern is not this particular Arizona law.... My concern is the spirit of fear that lies behind such laws in the hearts of growers and legislators across the country. Somehow these powerful men and women must be helped to realize that there is nothing to fear from treating their workers as fellow human beings. We do not seek to destroy the growers. We only wish an opportunity to organize our union and to work nonviolently to bring a new day of hope and justice to the farm workers of our country. It is long overdue and surely it is not too much to ask. Justice for farmworkers is our only goal; it is the goal of our nonviolent lettuce boycott. Will you help us by making a commitment not to eat or buy lettuce. This is a small sacrifice that can bring a great change for migrant farm workers. I ask for your prayers and your continued help in our struggle."
His letter, written in 1972, was entitled “Do We Exist?” It underscored the complexity before all human rights activists when assessing tactics and strategies. MALCS members believe that we must send a message to the state of Arizona: we will not spend our time and money to support a state that enacts such repressive measures. With approximately 300 members attending the institute, Arizona will lose about $300,000 in revenue from MALCS members. At the same time, we want to send a message to our colleagues in Arizona: we will continue to support your efforts for social justice. We recognize that national figures such as Shakira, Al Sharpton, Danny Glover, and Jesse Jackson have traveled to Arizona to join local activists in the fight against SB 1070. As democratic movement organizers call for action on the ground floor, MALCS will continue to develop nationwide strategies to support them. We are calling on all members to support the National Day of Action Against SB 1070.
Finally, in our commitment to social justice and women’s rights and to counter similar legislation in other states, MALCS will work with organizers in any state that passes legislation or ballot propositions that promote xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, racism, and classism.
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