Separatism 101
- From: "jose" <josefsoplar@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 26 Jun 2006 08:34:43 -0700
Separatism 101
By Aaron Hanscom
FrontPageMagazine.com | June 26, 2006
These are dark days for American education. In schools across the
country, an alliance of politically correct educators and radical
separatists is waging a divisive battle against the very idea of
assimilation.
The public school system in Seattle is a case in point. The Seattle
Public Schools recently made headlines after bloggers and columnists
noticed some interesting definitions on the district's official
Equity and Race Relations website. The website defined assimilation as
"the wholesale adoption of the dominant culture at the expense of the
original culture." Translation: Assimilation is inherently
oppressive, so minority students should think of themselves as victims.
Because whites play the role of oppressor in this politically correct
storyline, a website designed to combat racism was actually saturated
with it. According to the Seattle Public Schools, some aspects of
society that contribute to what the district calls "cultural racism"
are those that "overtly and covertly attribute value and normality to
white people and Whiteness." Thus, "defining white skin tones as
nude or flesh colored" is considered a form of racism.
Other examples of cultural racism appearing on the website gave the
impression that the Seattle Public School is intent on dashing any
chance its students have of achieving the American dream. Browsers of
the website were informed that "having a future time orientation,
emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology
[and] defining one form of English as standard" were all forms of
racism. How eliminating such key ingredients of America's melting-pot
society would help immigrant children went unexplained. Evidently,
Seattle's educators view students who speak standard English, plan
for the future and favor capitalism over collectivism as victims.
Instead of encouraging assimilation, the educationalists offer a
prescription for cultural separatism. Speaking Nahuatl, an ancient
language indigenous to Mexico and Central America, and planning on the
Aztec calendar is what will lead to truly successful lives in America.
At least that's the opinion of Marcos Aguilar, the founder and
principal of La Academia Semillas del Pueblo. The Los Angeles charter
school offers the children of some 150 "immigrant native families"
instruction in Nahuatl as well as the Aztec base-20 math system.
This emphasis on a dead culture, not to mention a culture of death,
might not be so detrimental to students if they were simultaneously
learning about their common American culture. But Aguilar believes that
the "white way, the American way, the neo liberal, capitalist way of
life will eventually lead to our own destruction." The former student
activist has declared that his school represents "resistance," and
it is his sincere hope that it can influence "future struggle."
All the evidence makes it clear that this struggle is to be with
America. Aguilar does not support "the general policy of the Los
Angeles Unified School District...to Americanize Mexican and
African-American children in Los Angeles." He explained his
opposition to the assimilation of minority students in an interview on
National Public Radio: "Nowhere in the Constitution of the United
States or in the Declaration of Independence does it say that, because
you come here, you have to now become an American. The United States is
who is the immigrant here, not us."
Such rhetoric sounds very similar to the popular chant by the Chicano
Student Movement of Aztlan (MEChA): "We didn't cross the border. The
border crossed us." That's hardly surprising: The Pasadena City College
chapter of MEChA and the National Council of La Raza Charter School
Development Initiative are active supporters of La Academia Semillas
del Pueblo. These groups also endorse the radical principal's dream
of forced segregation. About Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme
Court case which outlawed segregation in public schools, Aguilar has
said:
We don't necessarily want to go to White schools. What we want to do
is teach ourselves, teach our children the way we have of teaching. We
don't want to drink from a White water fountain, we have our own
wells and our natural reservoirs and our way of collecting rain in our
aqueducts. We don't need a White water fountain. So the whole issue
of segregation and the whole issue of the Civil Rights Movement is all
within the box of White culture and White supremacy.
Aguilar's relentless demonization of all things white recently landed
him in legal trouble. The Los Angeles district recently cleared his
low-performing school after allegations of discrimination against
non-Latino students. Kevin Reed, chief legal counsel for the district,
boasted: "What we care about is that the curriculum is inclusive and
not exclusive."
One would think that such an inclusive school would have nothing to
hide. But Sandy Wells, a local radio reporter, learned the hard way
that what happens at La Academia Semillas del Pueblo stays there.
After being denied an interview with Marcos Aguilar at the front desk
of the school, Wells was able to record an announcement made on the PA
system. As Wells left the campus, he was nearly run over by a vehicle
whose driver got out and wrestled his tape recorder from him. That same
day, as the anti-integration agenda of the school was making national
headlines, the school website was mysteriously shut down.
The Equity and Race Relations site of the Seattle Public Schools was
also pulled following a flurry of complaints. The apology issued by
Caprice D. Hollins, Director of Equity and Race Relations, revealed
much about the mindset of the multiculturalists. She explained that,
"Our intention is not to put up additional barriers or develop an 'us
against them' mindset, nor is it to continue to hold onto unsuccessful
concepts such as a melting pot or colorblind mentality."
This anti-assimilation agenda is not confined to Seattle and Los
Angeles. The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME)
is the leading organization of multicultural educators across the
country. The organization has held annual conventions since 1990, at
which speakers regularly deride the very idea of a common American
culture. At the 14th annual conference in Kansas City, for example,
multicultural advocates gathered to refocus their efforts to convert
school systems into instruments of social justice. Presenters Uzziel
Pecina and Catherine Frazier said, "The silent but deadly oppressor
of the ethnic minority child's spirit is a state of injustice that is
imbedded in a systemic society of a one-sided truth espoused through
the Eurocentric lens of American education." The only remedy,
according to these women, "lies in the embrace of an educational
system that can transform and restructure the political imbalance of
curriculum practices in the American schools. ... Teachers must get
educational training that empowers them with knowledge about their
ethnic minority students so that they can feel committed and confident
in unleashing the voices for social justice."
Teaching children math and science isn't nearly as exciting. Aztec
culture, on the other hand, seems to be included in many lesson plans.
The Chicago Public School's Office of Language and Cultural Education
not only instructs teachers in the Aztec method of weaving and pottery
making but it also explains how to teach children the way to make an
Aztec mask used in religious rituals.
At the same time, American history is increasingly being left out of
the classroom. Recent national test scores reveal that only 10 percent
of high school seniors have a proficient understanding of American
history. Minority students are the least knowledgeable. According to
the Boston Globe, 80 percent of African-Americans and 74 percent of
Hispanics do not meet basic competency standards in the 12th grade.
Last year, historian David McCullough warned a Senate education
subcommittee that American students aren't informed enough to become
knowledgeable voters. He also explained that students aren't aware
of the reasons why they have such rights as free speech and freedom of
religion.
Fortunately for the future of American education, McCullough is not
alone. There are others who understand just how important it is to
assimilate the next generation. And, as the outpouring of criticism
over the separatist agenda in Los Angeles and Seattle schools reveals,
one group is usually overlooked in the relentless pursuit of a
multicultural utopia: Americans.
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