HOUSTON – Eight high school students from Spring Woods High School and their teacher, along with 14 students from Lee College in Baytown, elders, professionals, Brown Berets and others headed to Austin Tuesday to protest in front of the Texas State Board of Education.
The board will take public testimony regarding the implementation of the “racist” textbook, "Mexican American Heritage."
Riders on the bus took their favorite book by or about Mexican Americans.
The group plans to use social media to document the trip.
"This textbook will teach an entire generation of students to discriminate against Latinos," writer and activist Tony Diaz of El Librotraficante said.
A petition was started to “stop the racist textbook.”
Mayor Sylvester Turner has also spoken out against the textbook because he said it describes Mexican workers as lazy. He said his objection is based not only on his own observations, but on reviews from history and Mexican-American studies experts.
As an example of the book’s slant on history, Turner cites a paragraph on page 248. It reads:
“Industrialists were very driven, competitive men who were always on the clock and continually concerned about efficiency. They were used to their workers putting in a full day’s work, quietly and obediently, and respecting rules, authority, and property. In contrast, Mexican laborers were not reared to put in a full day’s work so vigorously. There was a cultural attitude of ‘mañana,’ or ‘tomorrow,’ when it came to high-gear production.”
File: Mexican American History sample submitted to TEA
The Texas State Board of Education is set to review the book this fall.