A controversial Texas textbook on the Mexican-American experience is drawing widespread criticism, reports CBS News, with some critics claiming the book is “dripping with racism.”
The textbook has been determined by a state committee to contain many mistakes. The state’s education board held a hearing on the book last week. About 100 people signed up to speak, and the hearing even drew a busload of protestors to Austin.
Among the disputed passages: The book claims that Mexicans are stereotypically viewed as lazy, that "drinking on the job could be a problem" among Mexican Americans, and that Chicanos want to destroy Western civilization. A vote on whether to allow the book into Texas classroom is scheduled for Nov. 18.
The book was published by a company run by a former Cynthia Dunbar, a former Republican member of the Texas Board of Education. Dunbar is a right-wing Christian activist who, in 2008, questioned the constitutionality of public schools.