Abstract
After the conservative backlash in the 1980s against multicultural curricula, as exemplified by the public reaction to English 306 at the University of Texas at Austin, there emerged counterresponses with the election of President Bill Clinton. He showed a commitment to increasing educational opportunities for minorities under the premise that greater educational opportunities enabled minority populations to contribute positively to the national economy. Thus, the rhetoric of race and culture gave way to the rhetoric of economics under Clinton’s administration.
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Notes
- 1.
See also “The Racial Futility Component in Black Voting” (Bell 648–649). In this piece, Professor Paul Frymer “traces the party’s move to the right, with emphasis on Clinton’s call for welfare reform and for cutbacks on ‘excessive’ employment benefits, both widely perceived as benefiting ‘undeserving blacks’” (648).
- 2.
That ballot measure, which was heavily funded by conservative political groups, sought to deny to the children of illegal immigrants (most of who are assumed to be Latinxs) the right to any free public education whatsoever.
- 3.
Another organization which further recognized the importance and increasing presence of HSIs was the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans (Commission) in 1994. Established by President Clinton’s Executive Order 12900, and renewed by President George W. Bush, it issues a collective call to each executive agency to “increase Hispanic American participation in Federal education programs where Hispanic Americans currently are underserved” (Laden 190).
- 4.
See Mejía’s “Bridging Rhetoric and Composition Studies with Chicano and Chicana Studies: A Turn to Critical Pedagogy,” found in Latino/a Discourses: On Language, Identity, and Literacy Education, edited by Michelle Hall Kells, Valerie Balester, and Victor Villanueva.
- 5.
For a more specific discussion on the controversial role between race and literacy, see Literacy and Racial Justice: The Politics of Learning After Brown v. Board of Education, by Catherine Prendergast. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2003.
- 6.
Chicana poet Gloria Anzaldua wrote of “linguistic terrorism” in Borderlands: La Frontera: “So, if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. I am my language” (80–81).
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Ruiz, I.D. (2016). Multiculturalism’s Conflict: A Nation’s Quest for Accommodation and Excellence in Education. In: Reclaiming Composition for Chicano/as and Other Ethnic Minorities. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53673-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53673-0_7
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