‘It is certainly strange…’: attacks on ethnic studies and whiteness as property

Abstract

In 2010, Arizona passed legislation that attacked ethnic studies in k-12 (kindergarten to 12th grade). Specifically, Mexican American/Raza Studies (MARS) was targeted by the state Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), and, in effect, would be eliminated by the Prohibited Courses; Discipline; Schools Law (Prohibited Courses Law). This study utilizes document and content analysis to examine both a letter written by the SPI calling for the elimination of MARS, and the text of the Prohibited Courses Law. Framing the work within critical race theory, these two documents work together to normalize and make property of whiteness in Arizona’s public schools, and re-create a hegemonic status quo. In addition, this study analyzes how MARS acts as a site of counter-hegemonic activity by scrutinizing customary discourses as presented in schools and curricula.

Keywords:

• whiteness as property
• critical race theory
• Mexican American studies

Notes

1. MARS is a program of study in TUSD that consists of courses on the history of Mexican Americans and literature authored by Mexican Americans.

2. Although the law does not explicitly call for the termination of MARS, Horne made it clear that the purpose of the law would be to do so.

3. The identifiers Mexican American and Chicana/o will be used interchangeably in this work to describe US citizens of Mexican ethnicity.