ABSTRACT
Chapter Four analyzes the right-wing campaign against “critical race theory,” “divisive concepts,” “Ethnic Studies,” “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and related matters in light of Arizona’s successful assault during 2007-2017 on Tucson’s Mexican American Studies Program. Unlike mainstream Multicultural Education, Tucson’s MAS Program took an avowedly critical stance toward conventional education. Chapter Four describes how the program sought to “decolonize” Mexican American students’ schooling, recover the Indigenous roots of Mexican American culture and history, critically reframe Mexican Americans’ historical and contemporary circumstances, and cultivate a critical consciousness in students. The chapter highlights contradictions between the understandings and sentiments that the program advanced and those held by many Americans. The Arizona conflict catalyzed or reinvigorated the adoption of secondary-level Ethnic Studies elsewhere.
The ripple effects of the Arizona controversy suggested that there would be “many more Tucsons.” They did not, however, foretell attempts to manufacture a national moral panic over “critical race theory.” Chapter Four examines the rhetoric and actions of the anti-CRT crusaders and demonstrates how they closely echo those of the opponents of the Tucson Mexican American Studies program. Chapter Four argues that none of the past education culture wars has had the potential to be as far-reaching and enduring as the one occurring today.
