Boy Am I Glad I Don't Live In Arizona

In case anyone was confused about whether or not Arizona's recent immigration law was about a gradually building war against brown people motivated by white resentment about this not being their country anymore... well, may I direct you to this:

Just a week after signing the country's toughest immigration bill into law, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer now must decide whether to endorse another bill passed by her state legislature — one that outlaws ethnic-studies programs in public schools.

The bill forbids Arizona schools from using any curriculum that promotes "the overthrow of the United States government" or "resentment toward a race or class of people." It also disallows any curriculum that's "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group" or that seeks to "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals."

You might also want to check out this article in the Wall St. Journal about efforts to clamp down on... I kid you not... public school teachers who have accents.

Comments

[SashaNaomi]

So weird. By that logic, people with thick southern accents who say things like "talkin'" instead of "talking" should be eliminated. Th U.S. is a country of dialects. The way this thing should really be addressed is that all students learn about different dialects and that all teachers are prepared to teach that material. Of course that might require government money for professional development. Oh no!
The U.S. isn't like other countries that have language boards or whatever they call them. A lot of slang eventually becomes part of the mainstream. A teacher from an white, upper-middle class does him/herself a disservice by not being familiar with what Samy Alim http://www.anthro.ucla.edu/people/faculty?lid=3816
refers to as Black Language, just as a lower-class minority does him/herself a disservice by not knowing Standard English.
My sister teaches English Lit. to high schoolers in the UK, and they are required to study the differences between dialects, slang, and Standard English in a way that does not put down any of them. If she hadn't familiarized herself with all forms she'd be screwed. Just as I'd be screwed as an after-school teacher at Harlem Children's Zone if I hadn't studied all forms of the English language.
It's about knowing about how all Americans speak.