Arizona State Superintendent of Public Education to Rage Against the Machine: “F*ck You, I Won’t Do What You Tell Me!”
That smiling gentleman on the right isn’t Tom Morello’s proud father. His name is John Huffingballs Huppenthal, and until this past Friday, he was Arizona’s State Superintendent of Public Education. He’s also a total fartknocker, so rather than spend his last day on the job enjoying retirement cake and BS testimonials about how all of his co-workers will miss him, he sent a “note of noncompliance” to the Tucson Unified School District’s superintendent, H.T. Sanchez.
The sand in Huffingballs’ Huppenthal’s vagina? The fact that Cholla Magnet High School history teacher Corey Jones has incorporated Rage Against the Machine’s “Take the Power Back” into a course examining U.S. history from a Mexican-American perspective. (He was also pissy about the use of KRS-One lyrics in an African-American literature class.)
The use of the RATM song, according to Huffingballs Huppenthal, violates Arizona’s controversial 2010 ban on “ethnic studies” (the quotation marks are mine; I’m putting them there because “ethnic studies” is a hilariously vague term). In his letter to Sanchez, Huffingballs Huppenthal expressed concern that Jones’ curriculum contravenes the ban’s requirement that courses don’t “promote the overthrow of the United States government,” “promote resentment toward a race or class of people” and “advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
And lest you think a “note of noncompliance” is just a mean letter, The Arizona Republic reports that…
“The order threatens to withhold 10 percent of Tucson’s state funding if administrators don’t comply with orders to provide more information on the history classes and to remove parts of the curriculum that Huppenthal says violate state law by March 4.”
The small amount of good news here is that, according to Raw Story, “A lawsuit calling for the Arizona law [banning “ethinic studies”] to be overturned will go before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 12.” — one week from yesterday. So, fingers crossed, Huffingballs’ Huppenthal’s sandy vagina will be a moot point well before the March 4 deadline.
In the meantime, at least Jones and the Tucson Unified School District can take comfort in knowing that RATM have their backs:
“@Jakov_10: AZ school under fire for teaching about hip-hop, RATM lyrics http://t.co/q2vkonR0bC” It’s only dangerous if u teach it right
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) January 3, 2015
Here are the incendiary lyrics for “Take the Power Back,” in case you’re curious:
Bring that shit in! Uggh!
Yeah, the movement’s in motion with mass militant poetry
Now check this out…uggh!In the right light, study becomes insight
But the system that dissed us
Teaches us to read and rightSo called facts are fraud
They want us to allege and pledge
And bow down to their God
Lost the culture, the culture lost
Spun our minds and through time
Ignorance has taken over
Yo, we gotta take the power back!
Bam! Here’s the plan
Motherfuck Uncle Sam
Step back, I know who I am
Raise up your ear, I’ll drop the style and clear
It’s the beats and the lyrics they fear
The rage is relentless
We need a movement with a quickness
You are the witness of change
And to counteract
We gotta take the power backYeah, we gotta take the power back
Come on, come on!
We gotta take the power backThe present curriculum
I put my fist in ’em
Eurocentric every last one of ’em
See right through the red, white and blue disguise
With lecture I puncture the structure of lies
Installed in our minds and attempting
To hold us back
We’ve got to take it back
Holes in our spirit causin’ tears and fears
One-sided stories for years and years and years
I’m inferior? Who’s inferior?
Yeah, we need to check the interior
Of the system that cares about only one culture
And that is why
We gotta take the power backYeah, we gotta take the power back
Come on, come on!
We gotta take the power backHey yo check, we’re gonna have to break it, break it,
break it down
Awww shit!Uggh!
And like this…uggh!
Come on, yeah! Bring it back the other way!
The teacher stands in front of the class
But the lesson plan he can’t recall
The student’s eyes don’t perceive the lies
Bouning off every fucking wall
His composure is well kept
I guess he fears playing the fool
The complacent students sit and listen to some of that
Bullshit that he learned in schoolEurope ain’t my rope to swing on
Can’t learn a thing from it
Yet we hang from it
Gotta get it, gotta get it together then
Like the motherfuckin’ weathermen
To expose and close the doors on those who try
To strangle and mangle the truth
‘Cause the circle of hatred continues unless we react
We gotta take the power backYeah, we gotta take the power back
Come on, come on!
We gotta take the power backNo more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more liesUggh!
Yeah!
Take it back y’all
Take it back, a-take it back
A-take it back y’all, come on!
Take it back y’all
Take it back, a-take it back
A-take it back y’all, come on!Uggh!
Yeah!
[via Rolling Stone by way of Metal Injection]
