college/university professors, researchers & librarians request repeal of HB 2281

college/university professors, researchers, and librarians request that the Arizona State legislatur

Greetings

As concerned college and university professors, researchers, and librarians from across the United States, we are writing to request that the Arizona State legislature repeal HB 2281. We represent multiple and diverse academic disciplines and together voice our concern about Governor Jan Brewer’s signing into law HB 2281, and thereby banning ethnic studies classes in public and charter K-12 classrooms in Arizona.

As staunch supporters of American democracy and public education, we cannot but denounce the censorship and misguided restriction of academic freedom that HB2281 represents . Social and political struggles of the nineteenth century in particular taught the academic community its ethical responsibility to question universal assumptions, not perpetuate forms of oppression.

As we read it, the bill prohibits any curriculum that encourages “ resentment toward a race or class of people,” “are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group,” or “advocate ethnic solidarity.” In short, if this bill were applied to our own social sciences and humanities classrooms (e.g., courses in history, foreign languages, communication, literature, folklore, sociology, anthropology, and art), the worldview we work so hard to share with our students would be drastically narrowed. Similarly, the research we engage in and the scholarship, literature, and art filling our nation’s libraries and museums conflict with the basic tenets of this bill.

We are troubled by the anti-intellectual rhetoric included in the bill, wording that teaches intolerance, promotes xenophobia, and incites bigotry. Moreover, rigid limitations on curriculum have historically led to larger bans on the circulation of knowledge and, consequently, deleterious effects on democracy generally. We support a curriculum that furthers communication, commitment, and cultural knowledge, approaches to teaching that reinforce freedom and democracy and recognize a democratic public that originates out of human difference, such as that based on race, ethnicity, gender, and class. Such a pedagogical approach is crucial to the progress of the nation.

In chorus with other oppositional voices, we respectfully request the state of Arizona rescind its unwise law, and not further diminish the educational system in the United States by legislating an anachronistic approach to teaching.

Further, we urge elected officials everywhere—in Arizona and beyond— to support integrating multicultural education into the U.S. educational system.

Respectfully,

[Your name]