The Fantastical Right Wing Spin On Political Correctness

image of The Alamo
The Alamo is the scene of another battle over historical truth

A conservative friend on Facebook posted a link to an article written by Mike Gonzalez on the The Daily Signal website that complained the reason people don’t know more about the contributions of Tejanos toward the Texas Revolution of 1835 is because of Political Correctness. Obviously, Gonzalez is spinning his right wing propaganda and using the term ‘political correct’ incorrectly.

Juan Seguín, José Antonio Navarro, Lorenzo de Zavala.

Recognize any of those names? If so, you know your Texas history well. If not, you may be a victim of political correctness.

That’s because these three men don’t fit into the standard historical narrative in Texas. All were war heroes, fighting for Texas’ independence from Mexico and against Mexican President Santa Anna — a history that doesn’t suit today’s multicultural emphasis on ethnic identity and Chicano separatism.

Yet many historians and social scientists cite the legend of Mexican cruelty at the Battle of the Alamo as an iconic event that reinforced a false stereotype of Mexican inferiority. Some have called this “living under the shadow of the Alamo.”

But this reading of history leaves out a huge part of the real story. Teaching it would not be giving in to political correctness, but the opposite. It is real history and highlights Mexican-Americans’ role in making our great country. Many Tejanos, as the Mexican population in the Southwest was called, fought for the Texian cause — an independent Texas. Both Tejanos and Anglo Texians were an independent-minded frontier people.

If You Don’t Know These Heroes’ Names, You May Be a Victim of Political Correctness

So not teaching about Tejanos participation in the Texas revolution is because of multicultural emphasis on ethnic identity and Chicano separatism??? WHAT??

No no no… Gonzalez is using the word wrong:

politically correct: conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated – Merriam Webster

Political correctness would be including the history of the Tejanos which is ignored or dismissed by most white people who believe all the rebels were white Americans.

Yes, the right likes to smear the left with complaints about Political correctness but usually those complaints are really about their belief the left is trying to “censor” their bigoted language and attitude.

People on the left, like myself, would NEVER demand that Tejanos’ contribution to the Texas revolution be ignored or dismissed. That is what the right would do.

Mike Gonzalez even tries to “prove” his argument by quoting U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro’s mother, Rosie, a Chicana political activist who helped establish the Chicano political party La Raza Unida, who hates the historical landmark The Alamo.

Yet many liberals don’t want to hear about such figures as Seguín, Navarro and Zavala and despise the story of the Alamo. U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro’s mother, Rosie, who was a leader of the radical Raza Unida Party, is typical of this mindset.

“They used to take us there when we were schoolchildren,” she told Zev Chafets for a New York Times Magazine story in 2010. “They told us how glorious that battle was. When I grew up I learned that the ‘heroes’ of the Alamo were a bunch of drunks and crooks and slaveholding imperialists who conquered land that didn’t belong to them. But as a little girl I got the message — we were losers. I can truly say that I hate that place and everything it stands for.”

I looked up the article and the quote does come from the magazine article but of course Gonzalez puts a big spin on it to make it agree with his argument.

Ms. Castro was taught the classic glorified version of the Battle of the Alamo but then when she grew up she learned the truth. The ‘heroes’ “were a bunch of drunks and crooks and slaveholding imperialists who conquered land that didn’t belong to them” and the Mexicans were consider losers.

Obviously she hates The Alamo because it symbolizes the myth of the Anglo Texians who were worshiped as martyrs after the battle and got all the credit for the revolution while the Tejanos were lumped in with the Mexicans and dismissed in the biased histories.

The incorrect use of words is a common trait on the right.

For example, Republicans today claim their party is better for African-Americans because Abe Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, was a Republican. They also like to claim that Democrats were against civil rights law in the 1960s.

What they fail to do is put those claims in context. The GOP of Lincoln’s time is not the GOP of today. After Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” in the 1970s, Democrats are more likely to support minorities and their issues rather than Republicans. If you look at all the recent congressional battles over race or gender, the Republicans are the racist or misogynist party we have today.

Case in point, just recently, conservatives in Texas wanted to force school text books to minimize the effect of slavery on the decision of southern states to start the civil war among other right wing educational groaners.

If someone like Rosie Castro wanted to be honest about the Battle of the Alamo, the political correct way would be to make sure the Tejanos contribution to Texas Revolution was included.

People like Mike Gonzalez would be on the front lines making sure the myths of the Anglo Texians were maintained.

It is sad that Gonzalez has to take us for a ride over a segment of history that deserves more coverage.

In this case, Political Correctness is not the boogeyman. Right wing spin is the real enemy to historical truth.