Rethinking Columbus Banned in Tucson

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From Rethinking Schools Blog:

Rethinking Columbus was banned by a school district: Tucson, Arizona. According to journalist Jeff Biggers, officials with the Tucson Unified School District ordered that teachers pull the book from their classrooms, evidently as an outcome of the school board’s 4-1 vote this week to abolish the Mexican American Studies program.

As I mentioned to Biggers when we spoke, the last time a book of mine was outlawed was during the state of emergency in apartheid South Africa in 1986, when the regime there banned the curriculum I’d written, Strangers in Their Own Country, likely because it included excerpts from a speech by then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela. Confronting massive opposition at home and abroad, the white minority government feared for its life in 1986. It’s worth asking what the school authorities in Arizona fear today.

See also: Who’s Afraid of “The Tempest”?

(h/t: the beautiful MJB)

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  • Anonymous

    TUSD has been beat to death by the Teapotty here for their ethnic studies program.  The program has been recently shut down by the state after years of battle.  It does not surprise me that “Rethinking Columbus” would be banned by TUSD school board.

    Some find it terribly intimidating that our young should actually be educated about their history or take any pride in their ethnicity.  I would hope that every parent of a TUSD student would get this book and see that their child reads it as well as having discussions at home about its content.

    I despise censorship in any form.