[act-ma] Radical Film Night at LPC: BIC Presents "Precious Knowledge" 10/3 7pm

[Corry Banton]

Radical Film Night at the Lucy Parsons Center
Wed. October 3rd  7pm
"Precious Knowledge"
FREE!

Boston Interpreters Collective presents a film and discussion with members of El Movimiento:

"Precious Knowledge portrays the one of the final years of the highly  
successful but controversial Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson 
 High School.
 
 The program was a national model of educational 
success 93 percent of  its enrolled students graduating from high school
 and 85 percent going  on to attend college, bucking a statewide trend 
that saw only 48 percent  of Latino students graduating at all. The 
program taught Mexican and  American history, as well as Central and 
South American literature and  culture.
 
 But the political tide 
shifted in Arizona in the 2000s. The state passed  extremely 
controversial immigration laws, which some civil libertarians  equated 
to racial profiling. Legislative sessions in the state became  heated 
and rife with recriminations. And when lawmakers turned their  attention
 to Tucson High's ethnic studies program, it became a lightning  rod in 
the public conversation about race. Opponents of the program  launched a
 campaign to convince the public that ethnic studies teach  everything 
from communism to terrorism to 'reverse racism.'
 
 Students and 
their teachers fight hard to preserve their program,  marching to the 
statehouse, holding vigils, and testifying before  lawmakers. They 
invite their legislators to visit their classrooms, and  all but one 
refuse. When he does visit, he criticizes the poster of Che  Guevara on 
the wall, and suggests that a poster of Benjamin Franklin  would be more
 appropriate.
 
 At the center of the debate was Paulo Freire's 
textbook, The Pedagogy of  the Oppressed, which the school's instructors
 used for the ethnic  studies classes. The book is a famous example of 
critical race theory,  which looks at and acknowledges the influence of 
institutional racism in  America on non-dominant groups. The theory has 
been criticized as  Marxist.
 
 In 2011 Arizona lawmakers passed a
 bill giving unilateral power to the  state superintendent of schools to
 abolish ethnic studies classes. The  fight to restore ethnic studies 
continues in Arizona and in other  states, as education continues to 
adapt to a changing population. "
 
 Members from Boston area El 
Movimiento will be on hand for discussion after the film. 

El Moviemento/
 The Movement, is a grassroots, youth lead organization that works 
towards ethnic studies.  Our over all goal is to put ethnic studies in 
the Boston Public School System. We also educate ourselves by 
researching other topics that we haven't learned in school and creating 
workshops. We then create events that we host so that we can educate 
ourselves and others

www.lucyparsons.org
www.interpreterscollective.org


















































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