WTF, Arizona?

"Public schools in Tucson, Arizona, illegally promote ethnic solidarity and the overthrow of the U.S. government by teaching Mexican history, Rage Against the Machine lyrics and an explanation of hip hop by rapper KRS-One, the outgoing head of the state Education Department said in a letter released Friday.

The letter to the Tucson school district was the final act in office for John Huppenthal, a conservative former state senator who in 2010 helped pass a law later used to ban a controversial Mexican-American studies program from Tucson schools, arguing that the courses had bred resentment against whites.

Huppenthal, Arizona's superintendent of public instruction since 2012, oversaw the program’s elimination. He now says “culturally relevant courses” that a federal court ordered Tucson to offer as part of an agreement to resolve a decades-long desegregation lawsuit also violate the state law."

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"Huppenthal criticizes Cholla Magnet High School for including a history class, “Culturally Relevant Mexican American Perspective,” which includes lyrics from the Rage Against The Machine song “Take The Power Back.” An English class at the same school, “Culturally Relevant African American Perspective,” allegedly includes an essay by KRS-One, “An Introduction to Hip-Hop.”

“According to the Hip Hoptionary: The Dictionary Of Hip Hop Terminology by Alonso Westbrook, Hip Hop is defined as the artistic response to oppression,” the essay reads in part. “A way of expression in dance, music, word/song. A culture that thrives on creativity and nostalgia. As a musical art form it is the stories of inner-city life, often with a message, spoken over beats of music. The culture includes Rap and any other venture spawned from the Hip Hop style and culture.”

“Culturally relevant” courses like the district’s Mexican-American Studies program were scuttled in 2010 after Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed a state law into effect banning classes that were found to “promote resentment toward any race or class” and “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of being individuals.”

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