More than 100 politicians, scholars, activists and ordinary people signed up to speak against a book they found deeply troubling.
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Since there’s no Mexican American Studies course, there’s no real market for these textbooks, and no incentive to write one.
The Texas State Board of Education gave the textbook a full hearing, putting it through the same process as other state textbooks, a process that lacks any earlier filter for a problematic book.
Karen Naba, a high school senior, said that she traveled to Austin because she felt hurt by the portrayal of Mexican Americans.
Villarreal was one member of an ad-hoc committee of scholars who reviewed the textbook. Now, those same advocates are asking the board to reject the textbook.An independent review of the textbook found more than 140 factual errors and promoted offensive stereotypes.
For example, the textbook reads of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, “Chicanos. adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society”. Dunbar denied any racism or intentional offense in the book, saying it made “absolutely zero sense” to offend the very sort of people they hope will take the course.
Opponents of the textbook said that Dunbar, a former State Board of Education member, shouldn’t be publishing a textbook considering she once called public schools a “subtly deceptive tool of perversion”.
“Mexican-American Heritage”, which was submitted by Virginia-based publisher Momentum Instruction, is the first Mexican-American history book being considered for adoption. When the governor was asked he should not have said no comment.
In regards to the section about Mexican work ethic, she said it was supposed to be describing the stereotype. It’s about the integrity of Texas and ability for Texas to tell the truth. It’s being called a racist text filled with over 141 factual errors and where depictions of Mexicans range from lazy to drunkards.
Rodriguez referred to a South Texas student walkout in the ’60s.
Three of the five Democrat board members Ruben Cortez, Marisa Perez and Martha Dominguez have also spoken against the textbook.
“They do not make use of ongoing discussions, debates, treatments of themes and topics, the literature is vast and they’re not engaging that literature at all”, he said.
Among the people expected to testify before the State Board of Education on Tuesday are high school students from Spring Woods High School in Houston.
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A final vote by the state board on whether to approve or reject the book will come in November.
