Those who ban books have done so again. This time in Arizona.
Reports indicate that the Tuscon United School District claims the books were “confiscated” not “banned.”
Apparently these were the books:
- Critical Race Theory, by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic
- 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, edited by Elizabeth Martinez
- Message to Aztlán, by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales
- Chicano! The History of the Mexican Civil Rights Movement, by F Arturo Rosales
- Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, by Rodolfo Acuña
- Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire
- Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, by Bill Bigelow
Again, the report by Robert Cintli Rodriguez in the Guardian indicates that the action affected more than seven books.
The effort to control what students – or anyone – reads, offends me. As my friend Joann Haejong Lee puts it, “This is outrageous!”
A number of responses seem in order.
One that I believe is particularly important to read these books. I own two of the books. I have read Rethinking Columbus (and used parts of it in antiracism trainings) and parts of three others.
They all appear on my reading list now.
It also seems like a good night to listen to Los Lobos as I fall asleep.
See you along the Trail.
Along the Graybeard Trail 