Herman Badillo Dises His Own Kind

From: Vivirlatino

http://vivirlatino.com/2006/12/19/herman-badillo-dises-his-own-kind.php

For those that are of the mindset that any Latino politician is better than no politician at all, may I present to you Herman Badillo.

"Education is not a high priority in the Hispanic community . . . Hispanics have simply failed to recognize the overriding importance of education.Hispanics have failed to assume responsibility for their children's welfare . . . Hispanic parents rarely get involved with their children's schools. They seldom attend parent-teacher conferences, ensure that children do their homework or inspire their children to dream of attending college."

The first native-born Puerto Rican (I'm so ashamed to say) elected to Congress wrote this in his new book, One Nation, One Standard.

Having had experience first hand working with Latino parents in the NYC public school system, including an overwhelming amount of non-English dominant parents (and being a Latina parent with a child in public school) I am personally and collectively insulted. What has he been doing hanging with Lou Dobbs or Arnie?But wait it gets better. Look how Amazon.com is promoting the book:

In this surprising and controversial manifesto, you will learn:

* Why Hispanic culture’s trouble with education, democracy, and economics stems from Mother Spain and the “five-hundred year siesta” she induced in Latin America.

* Why the Congressman who drafted the first Spanish-English bilingual education legislation now believes that bilingual education hurts students more than it helps.

* Why “social promotion” — putting minority students’ self-esteem ahead of their academic performance and then admitting them to college unprepared — continues to this day, despite the system’s documented failures and injustices.

* How self-identifying as “Hispanic” or “white” or “black” undermines achievement, and what lessons we can learn from Latin American countries, where one’s race is irrelevant.

Race is irrelevant in Latin America? Is there another Latin America I've missed? I make no bones about the fact that I think Badillo is one of the biggest vendepatrias/sell outs of the community. This book shouldn't be on anyone's list for Navidad and in fact I would support an all out ban and protest of this book.