Framing Protest Music & Ethnicity Studies as “Illegal”

Framing Protest Music & Ethnicity Studies as “Illegal”

A conservative American head of the State Education Department in Tucson, Arizona, John Huppenthal, has published a letter saying that high school courses that teach Mexican history, Rage Against the Machine lyrics and hip hop lyrics by rapper KRS-One are dangerous because they incite the overthrow of the American government. He also argues that ethnic studies “had bred resentment against Whites.”

In case you were wondering, this is what state-sanctioned White supremacy sounds like, especially given Huppenthal was also responsible for banning Mexican-American studies in Tucson schools. I wrote about this ban in 2012: http://buff.ly/1wilcyN

Huppenthal says these courses should remain “illegal.” Nice choice of words, given this the language used to frame Mexican-Americans – despite the fact that the United Nations charter shows there are, in fact, no such thing as “illegal” people.

According to Huppenthal’s logic, courses that teach culture and history from a non-White-American perspective, even when representing the largest minority group in the state, and music that promotes the end of racism, are a huge threat to White society.

Rage Against the Machine’s Take the Power Back below includes lyrics about the importance of ethnicity studies, as written and sung by Chicano Zach de la Rocha. http://buff.ly/1wildCW

Story: http://buff.ly/1wildCZ #sociology #hiphop #rageagainstthemachine #mexican #latinos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqkMsXcHQYg&feature=youtu.be&utm_content=buffer1ffda&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js