Earlier this week, The Daily Show decided to take on the Tucson Unified school board and their decision to outlaw Mexican-American studies in their classrooms.
Here's more from the LA Times on the board's decision -- Mexican American studies: 'Daily Show' segment strikes a nerve:
After that stint on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” the Tucson Unified school board is probably wishing it had hired a media consultant before trying to explain its position on the district’s controversial Mexican American Studies program.
Normally, when people are featured on a television show, they call family and friends and let them know the time and channel. That might not be the case for board member Michael Hicks, who appeared in a segment about the ethnic studies controversy.
The Tucson school board voted to end the program after Arizona's education chief had ruled the district in violation of a controversial state law banning classes designed for a particular ethnic group or that "promote the overthrow of the U.S. government."
Defenders of the Mexican American Studies program have said it does no such thing. Some board members said they voted to discontinue the program under duress because the legislation allowed the state to withhold funding from the district unless it complied with the law.
The law and the board's vote -- and protests by Latino students -- have prompted fiery discussions in Tucson and across the state. Into that atmosphere stepped Hicks when he explained his vote on "The Daily Show."
"My concern was a lot of the radical ideas that they were teaching in these classes," Hicks is quoted as saying.
"Telling these kids that this is their land, the whites took it over and the only way to get out from beneath the gringo — which is the white man — is by bloodshed."
The segment quotes him as saying he has never gone to any of the classrooms and based his opinions on "hearsay."
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