A friend asked me what I thought about AZ HB 2281, which "bans" ethnic studies. Following is my response! (She told me that if it was too personal that I didn't have to respond, BTW.)
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Oh, I don't think that politics is ever too personal. It's our future
that we're discussing! Politics engenders policy, which has an enormous
influence over our future! So, no worries! I'm always up for discussing
politics : D.
I have to admit that I'm not overly familiar with AZ HB 2281. I looked it up,
along with some of the commentary. I had to say that I found it pretty
amusing — the commentary on both sides was so reactionary as to be
bordering on absurd. From my brief exposure to the topic, I'd say that
both sides are wrong, and that's one of the largest problems with
politics today. Both sides are racing to the opposite ends of arguments
so that achieving middle ground is impossible. On the one hand you have
minority groups claiming that the program was intended to prepare
students for college with college level texts, so the law is an obstacle to preparing minorities for college. Haha! Right, because the best way
to prepare minorities for college is to read college level left-wing
ideology. Haha! On the other side, you have people claiming that
minorities are trying to set up the equivalent of a madrasah. Such polarizing rhetoric makes rational discussion impossible.
Ethnic
studies classes make a lot of sense. EVERY historical perspective is
biased. The history told in American schools will be predominately (if
not almost exclusively) white European centric. That's just a fact of
life. It makes sense that minorities would want classes that tell
history from their own perspective. Where the classes went wrong was
allowing teachers with an axe to grind (and an agenda to push), who
would hijack the curriculum and turn it into an equally unfair
retelling. The purpose should be to provide balance, not to espouse
damaging views.
Does it help any of those students to believe
that "Republicans hate Latinos?" NO! That belief is far more damaging to
them than it will be to any white, racist Republican. Latinos who
harbor this belief will mistakenly exclude themselves from a portion of
society, and thereby exclude themselves from "Republican" associations,
careers, opportunities, and successes that they would already have. The
vast majority of Republicans do not hate Latinos. Do some? Sure! But, so
do lots of Democrats! Heck, there are even Latinos who act in racist ways
towards other Latinos! Harboring ill will towards Republicans will
injure Latinos far more than it will ever hurt anyone else. It's similar
to the segregation that African Americans impose on themselves by
despising "white" (which is really just American) culture, and trying to carve out their own distinct
culture. By ostracizing African Americans who act "too white", African
Americans self-segregate — nullifying much of the equality work of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.. Their peer pressure imposes an environment
where success is looked down on, discouraged, and even punished. How
does that help them? It doesn't. Having and preserving a distinct
culture can be a wonderful thing, as long as it's not done with the
purposes of denigrating another culture, of setting yourselves apart,
and of holding your own selves back. Every culture can have traditions that do us a disservice. We can and should integrate with the society around us without abandoning who we are and our own cultural uniqueness.
So,
does that make the law right? Haha! NO! It's impossible to legislate
correct behavior. Two wrongs do not make a right. No amount of laws will create a "good", and especially
not a law abiding people. You can write BILLIONS of pages of laws, and
you're still going to have improper behavior. Creating more laws
accomplishes the opposite. It makes it harder to actually be in
compliance with the law. (Do any of us know all of the laws, so that we
can actually be law abiding? Yeah, didn't think so.) It decreases
respect for the rule of law and engenders resentment. (Anyone else think
that ridiculous, stupid laws get passed way too often?) If you can view
the law as a type of sword or other type of suffering (I find excessive
laws insufferable), I think that Alma 31:5
applies well. The proper course of action is not to inflict more laws,
it's to teach people (the instructors of the ethnic studies class in
this instance) how their behavior is harmful to themselves and others.
If you don't improve peoples' understanding, then they'll just find a
new way to make the same mistake. We should be engaging in dialogue, not legislating one another.
Fortunately, it looks like the law doesn't have much teeth.
It won't actually ban ethnic studies. And, it's almost impossible to
enforce. Again, that just means that another stupid law was passed that
does a disservice to the respect for the rule of law, and the justice
system. It's more of a threat to clean up their act (or else) than
anything else.
As far as what the Libertarian philosophy would be, Libertarians are VERY PRO immigration. However, they also believe that programs like affirmative action (see Libertarian platform:
2.0 "Economic Liberty", 2.1 "Property and Contract", and 3.5 "Rights
and Discrimination"), while well meaning, only prolong the problems and
divisions. The solution is to just treat everyone as equal under the
law, and leave it at that. Don't give preference to underprivileged
groups, as this just makes them more dependent (and therefore less free)
on government. If they figure out how to induce the market to equalize
their situation (for instance, if handicapped people and all of their friends give
preference to facilities that are handicap accessible, and boycott
those that aren't — rather than getting the ADA passed), then they're empowered. When people believe that they're reliant on the government to establish equality, then they've already given up some of their liberties.
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