This is in Texas state news. Hispanics in Houston are extremely irate. They are the ones calling it racist, as well as Hispanics from El Paso and San Antonio. The publisher says they aren't reading the textbook right. (Ha!) They are taking a group to protest in front of the capital in Austin.
It is surprising that this conservative right wing state even is adopting any minority history textbook! That is progress.
People here are still upset about the Civil War! Some fly the confederate flag.
Let's address what they're calling racist first.
“Cubans seemed to fit into Miami well, for example, and find their niche in the business community,” the book’s authors, Jaime Riddle and Valarie Angle, write. “Mexicans, on the other hand, seemed more ambivalent about assimilating into the American system and accepting American values…The concern that many Mexican-Americans feel disconnected from American cultures and values is still present.”
"College youth attempted to force their campuses to provide indigenismo-oriented curriculum, Spanish-speaking faculty and scholarships for poor and illegal students…During the Cold War, as the United States fought Communism worldwide, these kinds of separatist and supremacy doctrines were concerning. While solidarity with one’s heritage was understood, Mexican pride at the expense of American culture did not seem productive."
“Chicanos…adopted a revolutionary narrative that opposed Western civilization and wanted to destroy this society.”
And, they took issue with the book's cover:
a web search reveals that the image, available for public use under a “Creative Commons” license, depicts an “Aztec Dance Look.” The indigenous dance is popular in Mexico, but is a misleading portrait of Mexican Americans, critics said.
All of this came from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/05/24/proposed-texas-textbook-says-some-mexican-americans-wanted-to-destroy-u-s-society/
Before we all jump on them for publishing a "racist" textbook, perhaps we should identify if it is actually racist. Should a book on Mexican-American history totally glaze over how many services have been created to help illegals? Did the Mexicans who immigrated assimilate as a whole? Was the Chicano movement entirely about civil rights? What about those who identify as Chicanos today?
Thanks for the much needed context JA
