The offer stands

Arizona is a state riddled with anti-government white militias, radio stations pumping out racist hate speech and politicians who wave guns as they denounce the oppressive rule of Washington. But Arizona’s attorney general apparently believes the real threat to the stability of the US government is being fomented in a handful of high schools in a liberal corner of the desert state.

Tom Horne has declared classes in Mexican-American history and social studies in the city of Tucson illegal on the grounds that they are “propagandising and brainwashing” students into overthrowing the constitutional government and hating white people.

Horne has ordered schools to scrap the ethnic studies programmes under a law he wrote in his previous role as Arizona’s education superintendent. He has not banned similar classes dealing with black or Native American history on the grounds that no one has complained about them.

Chris McGreal, The Guardian (U.K), 21 January 2011

Editorial Mazatlán has offered to give two copies each of Gods, Gachupines and Gringos and Revolutionary Days — and provide at cost additional copies — to the Tucson Unified School District, or to the program’s teachers if they need to  conduct Mexican-American studies courses in Tucson outside the official curriculum.