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my name is Ron
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speedu I am an educator for the past
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nine years I've been teaching ethnic
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studies chano studies and
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African-American studies to high school
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students in South Los
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Angeles and what I found working with my
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young people is that ethnic studies is
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empowering is liberating and is trans
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transformative for our young
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people a growing body of research from
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Scholars from across the country have
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shown and proven that ethnic
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studies has positive academic and social
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results for students of all Races and
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ethnic backgrounds now despite my own
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experiences and this research ethnic
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studies continues to remain invisible
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for students at the K through 12 level
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and in the state of Arizona ethnic
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studies has even been
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banned books by Latino authors have been
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pulled from the Shelf in front of
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students eyes and they're told that it's
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illegal for them to read these books in
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the
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classroom so how did we get to a point
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in 2014 where an entire
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State can ban a proven academic
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program and to answer that question I
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want to begin with the story of my
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grandmother margarita pedrasa
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my grandmother grew up in San Antonio
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Texas in the 1930s and when she was
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going to elementary school she was told
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that speaking Spanish was
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illegal she was forced to wear a sign
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around her neck that says I won't speak
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Spanish she was physically intimidated
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and abused by her teachers and her
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administrators and sadly this experience
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is common for many Mexican-American
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Latinos and other immigrants that have
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come into this country
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and so in many ways the story of my
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grandmother was a defining moment for me
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and it was a defining moment for my
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mother dor
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espu who used the experiences of my
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grandmother as an inspiration to become
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an educator herself and she became a
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bilingual education teacher and in 1975
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in San Antonio Texas after the historic
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LA versus Nicholl Supreme Court case
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that overturn these unjust
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laws my mother began teaching at the
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very same school that my grandmother
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attended except this time my mother was
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breaking the cycle and she was making
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students feel proud of their linguistic
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abilities she later went on to become an
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a principal of a highly successful dual
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language immersion program that had
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incredible results My Father David is
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Speedy through was also an educator for
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over 30 years and he was also a
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principal of bilingual education School
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and in San Antonio Tex it had incredible
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results for the students and was a model
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for the district and the
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city my parents inspired my two older
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sisters to become teachers and they also
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inspired me to become a
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teacher and we had this incredible model
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and example that as a teacher you must
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respect the community that your students
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are in and you must make them proud of
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their linguistic abilities and proud of
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their heritage
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you see I went to school in the 1990s in
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San Antonio Texas and while it was very
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different from my grandmother's
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experience maybe in some ways it wasn't
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so
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different I never read a book by a
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Latino author or an African-American
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author I studied Mexican-American
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history on May 22nd a day before the
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school year
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ended and it wasn't until I got here to
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Amherst College and I took my first
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black studies course that I realized
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that there was an entire academic
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discipline that I had been cut off from
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and as I learned about the struggles of
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African-Americans and other ethnicities
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and the Black Liberation struggle I
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became inspired to figure out who I was
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as a Cho male from South Texas I became
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hungry for knowledge I became inspired
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and once I found myself placed on the
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historical timeline I became an
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intellectual I was a student participant
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and a student organizer of an event
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called voices for the voiceless and
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through this event I met people like
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haime shagy florus that connected me to
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these literary movements that I knew
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nothing about I met people like veteran
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Cho poet R selinus who taught me about
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my indigenous background as a Cho I met
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Lis Reyes Rivera who taught me about the
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intersections between people of African
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descent and Puerto Ricans and I met
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Carmen Tafoya who was the poet laureate
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of San Antonio Texas who's one of the
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band authors in
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Arizona and I also became actively
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involved in the social movement of the
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time which was the Immigrant Rights
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Movement which is an important lesson
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about ethnic studies because you have to
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put what you learn into
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practice and so I felt
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liberated but I want to ask you the
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question why do we have to wait to
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college until we have these experiences
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shouldn't it be available for our young
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people in high school and elementary
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schools across the
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I believe
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so ethnic studies has a 45 year history
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in this
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country it was in
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1968 a group of multi-racial students
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formed the third world Liberation Front
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at San Francisco State University and
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they staged the country's longest
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student
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strike and at the end of this struggle
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they achieved the creation of the first
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ethnic studies program at the college
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level UC Berkeley followed the next year
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and student activism of college students
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spread ethnic studies to every major
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college and university and an entire
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generation of students have been trained
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to go back into their community and to
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use their knowledge that they learned
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about themselves and their communities
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and use these theoretical Frameworks to
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go back and solve problems in their
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community and be active agents for
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social
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change this movement was also at the
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high school level and in 1968 the
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historic East LA
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walkouts was asking for the same things
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for high school students bilingual
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education Mexican-American studies
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programs culturally relevant
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curriculum and here we are we're not
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done with this struggle 1998 was a
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defining moment in ethnic studies
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history it was the year that the ethnic
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studies Department in Tucson Arizona was
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created the country's first and only
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district-wide ethnic studies program and
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the Mexican-American studies program was
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the largest of the program it was a a
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national model for teachers like me and
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the teachers in the Mexican-American
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studies program presented at conferences
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and freely shared their curriculum and
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their pedagogy they invited us into
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their classrooms and I was a student of
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those teachers they had incredible
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academic results 93% of the students in
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the Mexican American studies were
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graduating from high school and 85% of
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them were getting accepted into college
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this compared to a district-wide average
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for Mexican-American students not in the
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program of a 50% dropout rate
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equally important students in the
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Mexican-American studies program
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according to the 2012 Cabrera study were
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outperforming their peers in Reading
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Writing and math now the funny thing is
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about math is they didn't even teach
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math right so how is that possible and I
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think it proves this point is that the
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program was allowing students to develop
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that intellectual identity it was a
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defining moment for those young
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people and so despite all this success
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in 2011 a group of politicians called
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this program unamerican and unpatriotic
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and accused the teachers of trying to
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teach students to overthrow the
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government
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yeah which is was the furthest from the
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truth and this the community responded
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students and parents and teachers staged
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hundreds of walkouts and protests and
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Sittin and they took over the school
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board and they galvanized an entire
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nation to defend the ethnic studies
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program in Tucson
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Arizona I was there in 2012 as part of
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the Lio trafficante book smuggling
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operation we were putting Contraband
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books by Latino authors in the trunk of
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our cars and taking them across
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territory that these books were illegal
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you know and one of the things that the
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students and the teachers told me was
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that we're happy that you're here but
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the real movement is back in your
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respective local communities go back
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there and create your ethnic studies
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programs so for the past nine years I've
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been engaged in that
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struggle as a member of the people's
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education movement and organization I've
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worked to create and share ethnic
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studies curriculum and developed ethnic
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studies pedagogy and at the school that
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I teach at Animo South Los Angeles we
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have an 11-year history of offering
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ethnic studies classes to all of our
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ninth grade incoming students and an
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elective also for upper class class in
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Cho African-American studies these are
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some of my
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students and through a important
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collaborative relationship with my
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administrators and with the counselors
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and with the other academic disciplines
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In My School site we have created myself
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and the other teachers that have taught
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these classes an academically rigorous
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course and program that focuses on
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reading and writing skills the focuses
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on listening and speaking skills the
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focuses on critical thinking through a
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project based approach to learning and
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before I share some of my own curriculum
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I just have to say I don't have this all
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figured out being a teacher is a grind
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on a daily basis and I am working to be
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better every single day so these are my
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humble ideas but they're research
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focused and they have
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results an ethnic studies program has
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three components number one it needs to
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be
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decolonial number two it needs to be
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culturally relevant and number three it
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needs to be Community responsive and
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social justice jce
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based what I mean by the colonial is
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that often times students go through
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history classes and they believe that
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African-American history began with
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slavery and that's not true we have
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thousands of years of history from our
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ancestors and those that came before us
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the West African dancers that come to my
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school every year is one part of an
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entire curriculum that makes students
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understand knowledge of self and where
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we come from the Aztec dancers that come
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to my school site are one example of an
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infusion of a curriculum that celebrates
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the indigeny of our Cho and our Latino
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students we put Columbus on trial for
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crimes against indigenous people right
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and we look at history from different
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Vantage points and we connect how
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colonialism of 500 years has shaped the
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current economic political and social
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system that our students engage with in
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South
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La the course needs to be culturally
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relevant in it that it has to be
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specifically tailored to the community
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that you teach in so I teach in a
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community that's half Latino and half
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africanamerican and one of the things
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that we focused on is celebrating and
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understanding the Legacy and the lessons
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of the unsung heroes of American
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History the program needs to be
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Community
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responsive in that my community is half
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black and half brown one of the
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centerpiece units that I teach is the
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missing chapter book on black and brown
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unity and I grab the state textbooks and
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I tell the students hey let's look for
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that chapter because man there's a whole
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lot written about
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it and of course we can't find the
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chapter so I say it's okay the knowledge
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is out there we'll create it together
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and so we create the missing chapter
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book on black and brown Unity this is a
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picture of two my students and I wanted
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to share one of the written ideas they
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came from my student London she's here
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on the left and she said this about what
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she learned often times you grew up
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believing that blacks and Latinos are
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Arch Rivals only because we aren't
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taught any better but how can we expect
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to be taught otherwise when our parents
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and our grandparents have been sheltered
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from the
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truth and the truth is is that black and
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Latinos are not enemies and in fact they
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are allies and have faced many of the
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same struggles throughout the course of
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history we need to address our struggles
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and Unite with one another to try to
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overcome them if we were to learn about
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how African and Indigenous people came
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together in Mexico for the liberation of
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their Collective struggles then we
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should get the sense to do the same and
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I think her words are profound in a a
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lesson and an understanding that's
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absent from most schools that has a
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multi-racial
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population and finally one of the most
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important lessons about ethnic studies
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is that ethnic studies is a struggle by
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itself and so the students engaged in
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this Innovative project that was brought
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to my attention by two friends of mine
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Professor Elia Cerna and professor John
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Avalos Rios who were creating popup
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books with their
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students and the idea of the popup book
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is a simple idea it's that 500 years ago
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the Maya indigenous people books were
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burned by the Spaniards two years ago or
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in 2011 our books were banned in Arizona
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so you can burn our books
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you can ban our books but the knowledge
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and the history and the struggle will
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always pop back up it'll pop back up in
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Los Angeles it'll pop back up in Amherst
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Massachusetts it'll pop back up in
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Chicago and all over the
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country and so students were able to
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write essays and study about these
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different events and they posted their
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work around the school side and they
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invited their community members and then
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we had a display at the Southern
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California library and I was contacted
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by a journalist from Latino USA at NPR
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program and what was really powerful is
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they came to interview my students about
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the project and about their experience
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in ethnic studies and we had achieved
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what we sought to achieve at the
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beginning which was to change the hearts
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and minds of people by reaching a
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national audience and I remember the
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faces on my students and how proud they
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were when they were speaking into the
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microphone and when they heard their
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words and their ideas over the
00:14:58
radio right now in Los Angeles we're
00:15:00
currently engaged in a historic struggle
00:15:04
to bring ethnic study students to all
00:15:07
high school students in Los
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Angeles my students recently wrote
00:15:11
letters to the Los Angeles Unified
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School
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Board according to the data from the
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California Department of Education
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there's over 152,000 high school
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students in Los
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Angeles of those 152,000 only 691 are
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currently in ethnic studies program
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this in a school district that serves
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90% students of color it's time to
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change it's time to
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transform it's time to offer ethnic
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studies classes not just for the high
00:15:42
school students but for elementary and
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middle school two days from now on
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Tuesday November 18th I'm going to be
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joined by thousands of other people in
00:15:50
Los Angeles who are going to be rallying
00:15:52
in front of the school board and we
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believe that this is a historical moment
00:15:56
similar struggles are taking place in
00:15:58
Texas the District Court of Appeals will
00:16:00
be hearing the a federal court case
00:16:02
that's been brought against the State of
00:16:04
Arizona for Banning the ethnic studies
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classes and my message to you is that
00:16:08
you and you can create ethnic studies
00:16:12
programs by writing resolutions for your
00:16:14
local school
00:16:16
board you can go to your local community
00:16:19
your local school community and you can
00:16:21
encourage teachers and administrators to
00:16:22
create these programs if you're an
00:16:26
educator whatever discipline whether
00:16:28
it's science math or English you can
00:16:30
also create these programs you can
00:16:32
Infuse ethnic studies pedagogy and
00:16:34
ethnic studies curriculum into whatever
00:16:36
academic discipline that you have our
00:16:38
students need it their success
00:16:41
determined their success is determined
00:16:43
by us offering this type of learning and
00:16:46
this type of transformative and
00:16:47
liberating experience and I want to end
00:16:50
today with a poem that I begin my class
00:16:53
every day with it's a poem that comes
00:16:57
from the Mayas it's a concept called
00:16:59
inlakesh it's thousands of years old to
00:17:01
this continent that we live in it's a
00:17:03
poem written by Luis Valdez who was a
00:17:05
member of the United farmworker
00:17:08
movement in Arizona this is a poem that
00:17:11
the government deemed illegal in La this
00:17:15
poem is popping
00:17:17
up and here's how it goes and it's at
00:17:20
the heart of what an ethnic studies
00:17:23
classes about
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inesh you or my other me
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if I do harm to
00:17:33
you I do harm to
00:17:36
myself respect if I love and respect
00:17:41
you respect I love and respect myself
00:17:46
thank you very much ladies and gentlemen
