As the result of a new book-banning Arizona law, a public reading of those books banned was held Tuesday in the EMU Amphitheater to promote awareness about the current situation regarding ethnic studies restrictions in Arizona.@@what?@@
The demonstration was organized by David Wacks, a romance language associate professor, with help from various University departments, including ethnic studies, comparative literature, education and many others. @@http://uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/David*Wacks@@
“We wanted to highlight what is an egregious censorship on the part of a public school system that bodes ill for possible future acts in other public systems,” Wacks said. “Read the books. Determine for yourself if they’re offensive or not offensive.”@@er…is this the best way to do it?@@
The ban was implemented in the Tucson Unified School District on Jan. 1, 2012 and includes works ranging from William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” to Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States.” The school district was also forced to cut its ethnic studies program. @@http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-1492-Present/dp/0060528370@@
“This isn’t something that cropped up overnight. We’ve been battling this since the ’60s,” said Zelda Haro, a Ph.D. candidate and graduate teaching fellow. “It’s a shame that we’re living in a new millennium and this is occurring.” @@http://uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Zelda*Haro@@
She said she and others here at the University stand in solidarity with the Arizonan educators and students, stressing to never forget everyone has a history that has contributed to this nation.
Several instructors, professors and graduate students took part in Tuesday’s public reading. Each read an excerpt, hand-picked from a book on the ban list they thought was important.
“I think there’s always more awareness if you know something of what’s in the book, and if we can read parts of them, you can get a sense of the wide range of books that are on that ban list and a greater sense of what the ideals involved are,” said Spanish associate professor Amalia Gladhart. “We’re all part of a shared community that needs to listen to these different voices. These are good stories; we just need to hear them.” @@http://uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Amalia*Gladhart@@
The Duck Store was on hand with copies of some of the books from the ban list. Duck Store author event coordinator Laura White said the bookstore’s main mission is to support the campus community; she believes this demonstration was a good opportunity to partner with students and faculty alike to bring attention to the situation. @@http://uoduckstore.com/about/customerservice.php@@
“As an independent bookstore, censorship is a huge issue to us,” White said. “I feel very strongly about not having books banned and not censoring them. This issue has really hit home, and people feel that in 2012 this shouldn’t be happening.”
Arizona’s new book-banning law contested at University
Daily Emerald
April 30, 2012
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