Transcript
0:00 immigration, but it is our civic responsibility to have educated, well-informed and non-hysterical debate and to develop solutions that are fundamentally respectful of human and civil rights. What we so desperately need, and yes, this does put the class of 2010 at a particular crossroads, is for you to bring every critical thinking skill at your disposal and then some more. to bring all of the substantive knowledge of history, diverse cultures, and societies, ethics, and politics.
0:37 Bring all of these to the table. The new Arizona law, generally known as SB1070, is considered the strictest anti-immigrant legislation in the country and is explicitly intended to drive the [Applause] difference out of the state. That's right. This is America.
1:11 [Applause] One reason it has instigated a boycott is because to a whole lot of people, myself included, it appears to not only invite but require the police to engage in racial profiling. Before we had a chance, cut your hair. [Applause] Before we had a chance to fully get our heads around the implications of either 1070 or of the subsequent boycott, our governor signed HB 2281. Yay. to eliminate any ethnic studies class from public and charter schools of Arizona. As I held hands with middle and high school students who formed a human chain around TUSD headquarters this past Wednesday to protest this law, the children tirelessly chanted, "Our education is under attack. What do we do? Fight back.
2:25 [Applause] Please, please. Civic disc, civil discourse. Yeah, that's right. Okay. Thank you very much. As a professor, as a professor, someone who has committed her life to teaching, I was moved beyond words to see those children peacefully, in fact, beautifully, asking only for a chance to see themselves reflected in the lessons they are taught, the lectures they hear, the textbooks that they read. I was there with those children for two reasons.
3:12 First, Chano studies, the field under attack in this legislation, is my own field of research and teaching. The law suggests that it is knowledge about marginalized histories and cultures that will divide us. That is, the law tries to shoot the messenger. As the young students told reporters repeatedly Wednesday, they have a right to learn about all sorts of diverse histories and cultural expressions. The the second reason I stood with those children is because their education like your education matters to me. If I have been saying anything to you so far, it is that education has a public value. That is your education will not only bring you a bigger paycheck, it will enable you to be a better fellow citizen, more productive, better able to participate in solving the challenges I and my peers have not been able to conquer. So the ongoing cutbacks in public funding of education as well as the recent devastating cuts to our our own university among others are deeply worrying to me in that they strike at both the quantity and quality of education that this state provides to its people. I do hope that you will like the youth I stood with on Wednesday fight for public education. Now that you have completed your own education, please remember to leave the door open behind you so that other students may enter. On behalf of the faculty of the school of social and behavioral sciences and of the department of gender and women's studies, I wish you the very best. Thank you.
4:58 [Applause] Oh, heat, heat.