by Roberto Rodriquez

I pick up the phone at my office at the University of Arizona and learn that I have three recorded messages waiting for me. The first one begins with the caller claiming to be half White and half Native American, addressing me as an “expletive Mexican” and a “Raza expletive.” This while injecting a .357 Magnum into his rant.The second and third calls are similar. The vitriol is inexplicable and virtually incomprehensible, except for the threats of extreme violence.As a lifelong writer, receiving vicious hate mail is not new to me, including receiving a registered letter to my house from the Ku Klux Klan. But receiving death threats as a professor — this is new.

via Demonizing Mexican-American studies is unjust.

In a stunning rejection of celebrated author Ana Castillo’s offer to read and speak with Tucson high school students next week, Tucson Unified School District administrators added a new chapter to the nation’s most troubling censorship crackdown and dismissed any overtures for healing in the torn community.

A widely sought speaker on the national lecture circuit, the renowned poet and novelist, whose beloved stories are read throughout schools in Tucson and Arizona, had offered to waive her honorarium and travel to Tucson on her own dime, as part of a special effort to bring “healing to all sides.”

via Jeff Biggers: Tucson High School Blocks Renowned Author Ana Castillo’s Visit: Community Hosts Events/Fundraiser.

In recent weeks, the state of Arizona has intensified its attack in its schools on an entire branch of study — critical race theory. Books and literature that, in the state’s view, meet that definition have been said to violate a provision in the state’s law that prohibits lessons “promoting racial resentment.” Officials are currently bringing to bear all their influence in the public school curriculum, going so far as to enter classrooms to confiscate books and other materials and to oversee what can be taught.  After decades of debate over whether we might be able to curtail ever so slightly the proliferation of violent pornography, the censors have managed a quick and thorough coup over educational materials in ethnic studies.

via In Arizona, Censoring Questions About Race – NYTimes.com.