Bill Resnick talks with writer and Portland-area teacher, Bill Bigelow, about how his book "Rethinking Columbus" was removed from Tuscon-area schools because it violates Arizona Law concerning teaching ethnic studies in Public Schools. Bill Bigelow explains how the crack-down on the Mexican-American studies program is about silencing pedagogy that encourages a historical appreciation for racial and other oppression in the USA---insisting that "in America there are no oppressors, only individuals." He also talks about his book, "Rethinking Columbus", which he published in the mid-90s to address the alarming dearth of information about the natives experience of Columbus' arrival to the "new world". He says that the book is a metaphor for the whole Mexican-American studies curricula, in that "it's a lesson in whose stories to pay attention to ignore."
- KBOO