Arizona Republic
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Demonizing Mexican-American studies is unjust
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2012/05/25/20120525mexican-american-studies.html#comments#ixzz1wDEKw49f
by Roberto Rodriguez - May. 27, 2012 05:44 PM
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.
Just the week before those calls, a video was placed on YouTube by right-wing elements, accusing me of being the ringleader of the movement to defend Mexican-American Studies (MAS) from being eliminated by the state, via House Bill 2281. In reality, that six-year effort has primarily been a student-led movement.
The funny thing is they invented the things that I supposedly did: standing on top of a table while directing the students to chain themselves to the school boardroom chairs and screaming at my students if they didn't read precisely what I wrote for them to read at the board meetings.
Complete fabrications are indeed funny to me, but I can't say the same thing about death threats.
For rest of the column and to see or leave comments, please go to:
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.
Just the week before those calls, a video was placed on YouTube by right-wing elements, accusing me of being the ringleader of the movement to defend Mexican-American Studies (MAS) from being eliminated by the state, via House Bill 2281. In reality, that six-year effort has primarily been a student-led movement.
The funny thing is they invented the things that I supposedly did: standing on top of a table while directing the students to chain themselves to the school boardroom chairs and screaming at my students if they didn't read precisely what I wrote for them to read at the board meetings.
Complete fabrications are indeed funny to me, but I can't say the same thing about death threats.
For rest of the column and to see or leave comments, please go to:
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2012/05/25/20120525mexican-american-studies.html#comments#ixzz1wDEKw49f
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