The way schools teach about racism in the context of history, social studies and political science has become an increasingly contentious topic in recent years as the Black Lives Matter movement has forced a reckoning on the country’s racist history.
But 15 years ago, one Arizona school district was already using a lens of racial awareness in its Mexican American Studies classes.
Republican lawmakers back then took note and banned Tucson Unified School District’s “ethnic studies program” — just as lawmakers are now trying to ban "critical race theory" from being taught in schools.
But as Hank Stephenson, a Phoenix-based journalist, writes in Politico Magazine, the ban didn’t last.
The Show spoke with Stephenson to learn how the situation unfolded and what it means for today.
