In 2021, Ethnic Studies became a state graduation requirement for the class of 2030 and onwards after Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 101 into law, according to an article on CalMatters.
Ethnic studies started as a college course that minority groups advocated for because of the lack of minority representation in U.S. history classes, English teacher Audrey Yang said. “It was a very local movement,” Yang said. “It started at UC (University of California) Berkeley and San Francisco State. Different student organizations came together, and they had one of the longest student strikes in history,
and they pushed for the creation of an ethnic studies department in which they would learn about things like Black American studies, Asian American studies, Native and Indigenous studies, LatinX studies, and so on and so forth to kind of broaden the historical context of their education.”
The students at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State also pushed for more school faculty members of color to represent the student body, Yang said. At a high school level, ethnic studies is an introduction to the ways that minority groups have pushed for representation, as well their different backgrounds and experiences, she added. “There’s so many diverse experiences here in America, but it’s hard to capture all of it in a semester-long course,” Yang said.
“So it (the course) is based on the ways in which we understand history, and then we use different minority groups’ experiences to explore those concepts.”
There is room for more representation of minority students in the school curriculum, senior Sneha Nair said. Most books read in schools are written by old, white, male authors, with an occasional Black or female author, they added.
“It may seem like a lot of progress,” Nair said. “But it’s definitely not enough. Where are the Asian authors? Where are the Latino or Hispanic authors? Just one Black author isn’t enough when there are so many incredible African American writers.”
Although there is often not enough room in students’ schedules to include ethnic studies as a graduation requirement, considering that some students are taking advanced or Advanced Placement (AP) classes, the new law ensures that students are aware of all the different stories and histories that they might not learn about in other courses, English teacher Tonichi Lorenzana said.
“Ethnic studies is largely the story of us, the story of people,” Lorenzana said. “We often think of U.S. history, or world history, and it’s often told through a narrower lens because there are people and standards that need to be met. But ethnic studies gives an opportunity for all of us to learn about contributions from people who might have the same background as us, or a different background as us, that are not included; so it gives a more diverse and complete picture.”
Compared to other subjects such as geography that are already graduation requirements, ethnic studies teaches more important and relevant information, Nair said. “I know there are statistics out there that say, ‘This percentage of Americans can’t even point out other countries on a map,’” Nair said. “But when you compare looking a little uneducated on paper versus actually being able to understand social intricacies and things about culture and society, I feel like there’s clearly one that’s more important than the other.”
Ethnic studies can foster a greater sense of empathy for people, Lorenzana said.
“One of the goals of (ethnic studies literature) is to expose our very diverse student population to the histories and stories of people that come from different backgrounds to find things that are different, but also to find things that are in common,” Lorenzana said. “If you learn about a culture that is different from your own, you can see where there are parallels and things, like certain values that people have in terms
of family, respect, whatever the case may be. Then you can kind of bridge that understanding from
‘Your culture is different from mine, but I have learned something that I can value, respect, and understand, so now I understand you a little bit better.’”