SJSU MEXA invites the Justice Studies Department to participate in an Arizona banned book drive. Due to HB 2281 and the subsequent bans on ethnic studies books in Arizona, SJSU MEXA unites with MEXA chapters across the state as we join the movement to send Arizona students banned books.
Let’s work together to empower Arizona students with knowledge by donating any of these books to a book drop-off location: Department of Justice Studies by December 10th.
Thank you for your solidarity and efforts. Please spread the word. Please email Sjsumecha@yahoo.com with any questions. The more books, the more empowerment.
Background on the books ban:
On May 11, 2010, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed HB 2281 into law, which
“Prohibits a school district or charter school from including in its program of instruction any courses or classes that: Promote the overthrow of the United States government. Promote resentment toward a race or class of people. Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group. Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals”
If schools fail to comply after notification of being in violation of this law, they will lose state funding.
HB 2281 is the law that was formed to ban ethnic studies and ethnic studies books in Arizona schools.
Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal of Tuscon School District (TSD) found that TSD’s ethnic studies courses violate HB 2281. Huppenthal was previously one of the state senators who voted for HB 2281. Although Huppenthal was invited to visit one of the ethnic studies courses before the bill became law and saw the way the course was run, he claimed that there was no way to know if that was a genuine representation. Huppenthal repeatedly voiced concern that Karl Marx and Che Guevara are cited in “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” by Freire, one of the course readings. He did not believe the students and teachers who explained that they discuss classism, racism, sexism, etc. but that does not equate to being racist.
Following bad publicity, TSD claims that the following books are not banned. However, they are eliminated from course curriculum and confiscated from classrooms. Call it what you will.
To read the text of HB 2281:
The books to donate are:
High School Course Texts and Reading Lists Table 20: American Government/Social Justice Education Project 1, 2 – Texts and Reading Lists
• Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson
• The Latino Condition: A Critical Reader (1998), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic
• Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (2001), by R. Delgado and J. Stefancic
• Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2000), by P. Freire
• United States Government: Democracy in Action (2007), by R. C. Remy
• Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales
• Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1990), by H. Zinn
Table 21: American History/Mexican American Perspectives, 1, 2 – Texts and Reading Lists
• Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (2004), by R. Acuna
• The Anaya Reader (1995), by R. Anaya
• The American Vision (2008), by J. Appleby et el.
• Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (1998), by B. Bigelow and B. Peterson
• Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A. Burciaga
• Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (1997), by C. Jiminez
• De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views Multi-Colored Century (1998), by E. S. Martinez
• 500 Anos Del Pueblo Chicano/500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures (1990), by E. S. Martinez
• Codex Tamuanchan: On Becoming Human (1998), by R. Rodriguez
• The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez
• Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History (2006), by F. A. Rosales
• A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present (2003), by H. Zinn
Course: English/Latino Literature 7, 8
• Ten Little Indians (2004), by S. Alexie
• The Fire Next Time (1990), by J. Baldwin
• Loverboys (2008), by A. Castillo
• Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros
• Mexican WhiteBoy (2008), by M. de la Pena
• Drown (1997), by J. Diaz
• Woodcuts of Women (2000), by D. Gilb
• At the Afro-Asian Conference in Algeria (1965), by E. Guevara
• Color Lines: “Does Anti-War Have to Be Anti-Racist Too?” (2003), by E. Martinez
• Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy (1998), by R. Montoya et al.
• Let Their Spirits Dance (2003) by S. Pope Duarte
• Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz (1997), by M. Ruiz
• The Tempest (1994), by W. Shakespeare
• A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (1993), by R. Takaki
• The Devil’s Highway (2004), by L. A. Urrea
• Puro Teatro: A Latino Anthology (1999), by A. Sandoval-Sanchez & N. Saporta Sternbach
• Twelve Impossible Things before Breakfast: Stories (1997), by J. Yolen
• Voices of a People’s History of the United States (2004), by H. Zinn
Course: English/Latino Literature 5, 6
• Live from Death Row (1996), by J. Abu-Jamal
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1994), by S. Alexie
• Zorro (2005), by I. Allende
• Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1999), by G. Anzaldua
• A Place to Stand (2002), by J. S. Baca
• C-Train and Thirteen Mexicans (2002), by J. S. Baca
• Healing Earthquakes: Poems (2001), by J. S. Baca
• Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems (1990), by J. S. Baca
• Black Mesa Poems (1989), by J. S. Baca
• Martin & Mediations on the South Valley (1987), by J. S. Baca
• The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America’s Public Schools(19950, by D. C. Berliner and B. J. Biddle
• Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1992), by J. A Burciaga
• Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States(2005), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos
• Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing up Latino in the United States (1995), by L. Carlson & O. Hijuielos
• So Far From God (1993), by A. Castillo
• Address to the Commonwealth Club of California (1985), by C. E. Chavez
• Women Hollering Creek (1992), by S. Cisneros
• House on Mango Street (1991), by S. Cisneros
• Drown (1997), by J. Diaz
• Suffer Smoke (2001), by E. Diaz Bjorkquist
• Zapata’s Discipline: Essays (1998), by M. Espada
• Like Water for Chocolate (1995), by L. Esquievel
• When Living was a Labor Camp (2000), by D. Garcia
• La Llorona: Our Lady of Deformities (2000), by R. Garcia
• Cantos Al Sexto Sol: An Anthology of Aztlanahuac Writing (2003), by C. Garcia-Camarilo, et al.
• The Magic of Blood (1994), by D. Gilb
• Message to Aztlan: Selected Writings (2001), by Rudolfo “Corky” Gonzales
• Saving Our Schools: The Case for Public Education, Saying No to “No Child Left Behind” (2004) by Goodman, et al.
• Feminism is for Everybody (2000), by b hooks
• The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child (1999), by F. Jimenez
• Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools (1991), by J. Kozol
• Zigzagger (2003), by M. Munoz
• Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (1993), by T. D. Rebolledo & E. S. Rivero
• …y no se lo trago la tierra/And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (1995), by T. Rivera
• Always Running – La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. (2005), by L. Rodriguez
• Justice: A Question of Race (1997), by R. Rodriguez
• The X in La Raza II (1996), by R. Rodriguez
• Crisis in American Institutions (2006), by S. H. Skolnick & E. Currie
• Los Tucsonenses: The Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941 (1986), by T. Sheridan
• Curandera (1993), by Carmen Tafolla
• Mexican American Literature (1990), by C. M. Tatum
• New Chicana/Chicano Writing (1993), by C. M. Tatum
• Civil Disobedience (1993), by H. D. Thoreau
• By the Lake of Sleeping Children (1996), by L. A. Urrea
• Nobody’s Son: Notes from an American Life (2002), by L. A. Urrea
• Zoot Suit and Other Plays (1992), by L. Valdez
• Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert (1995), by O. Zepeda
• Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
• Yo Soy Joaquin/I Am Joaquin, by Rodolfo Gonzales
• Into the Beautiful North, by Luis Alberto Urrea
• The Devil’s Highway, by Luis Alberto Urrea
Tags: Banned Books
