Rodriguez: Arizona Moves to Ban Social Justice and Academic Freedom

With the legitimacy of the president-elect in question, not a few people believe that the nation is on the verge of a constitutional crisis. Yet whatever people have feared about the future of the country, in Arizona we have already been living this crisis for 10 years now, especially in the realm of education. And it is about to get worse, as lawmakers have introduced legislation that would have the effect of banning social justice classes, activities and events, from K-12, to colleges and universities statewide.

This is the last state to adopt Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a national federal holiday. It finally did so only because of a national economic boycott of the state. It is the land of English-only. It is also the state where legislators have been at war with migrant students. This is similar to the extreme manner that the president-elect has been at war with Mexicans and migrants over the past 18 months.

This is a state, governed by ideologues with unfettered power, the same state that gave us the anti-immigrant SB 1070 and the anti-ethnic studies HB 2281 legislation in 2010.

And now, they are set to give us the HB 2120 anti-social justice legislation, a Frankenchild of HB 2281, though much worse. In fact, it is an amendment to the anti-ethnic studies law, which would also now ban social justice. As amended, it would now ban:

… courses, classes, events, or activities that do any of the following:

Not to be forgotten is that Arizona is the political meth lab of the nation; repressive legislation is birthed here, and if it is “successful,” it is then exported nationwide. SB 1070 is exhibit A, having been exported to more than two dozen states.