Culture: Who we are, how we live and what affects our lives

Entries in Arizona (2)

Tuesday
Jun212011

Colorblind: Advocating cultural ignorance in Arizona schools

By Charisse N. Montgomery

For some time now, the state of Arizona has been working to outlaw cultural studies programs in its public schools. The reason the state cites for shutting down the program was that it “promote[s] resentment toward a race or class of people.” Although the Mexican American students enrolled in these cultural studies programs seem to benefit from the content, the possibility that they might view white or mainstream American culture critically is at issue.

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Wednesday
May042011

The new politics of race

By Richard Montgomery

It is 2011, and we should not have to be discussing the legitimacy of and tolerance for Black people.  Clearly, someone did not get that memo. 

As President Obama takes his victory lap around the world for the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, his feat is still marred by the juxtaposition of what it means to be Black in America.  Over the past few weeks, Donald Trump has attempted to question whether President Obama was legitimately able to serve as our President because of questions concerning his birthplace.  Though Trump’s strategy was to pander to the 1 in 4 Americans who do not believe that President Obama was born in the United States, the President recently provided the long form birth certificate that demonstrated his legitimate birth in Hawaii. Immediately after verifying his residence, Trump began to raise suspicions that President Obama was a bad student in college and he questioned how Obama was able to gain entrance into an Ivy League institution, seemingly calling upon notions about Affirmative Action.

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