Last month, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1460, effectively requiring all California State Universities (CSU) to implement an ethnic studies mandate: students would have to take one of four ethnic studies courses to meet graduation requirements. CSU is the most extensive university system in America and has long been a leader in offering ethnic studies courses. 

Even before the recent bill shed light on ethnic diversity in the curriculum, a study conducted by members of the Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) analyzed emerging ethnic studies programs at the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), which explored topics such as the genocides of Native Americans, representations of racial minorities in the media and changes to the education after the civil rights movement. The course also reflected upon the students’ own histories with a goal to increase their dedication to social justice and boost their confidence in their identities. 

Results of the study showed a correlation between the ethnic studies courses and improvements in attendance and grades. If such benefits are possible, and CSU now has a legal mandate to include ethnic studies, why must our own school lack in this regard of curriculum diversity?

Ethnic studies remains so marginalized at Harker, students lack the support to broach the borders of a field valued by Californian educational institutions. Our school is missing the opportunity to center ethnic studies at the core of our humanities training. The usual lack of response to Martin Luther King Jr. Day presents perhaps the most glaring negligence, but many more examples abound. Putting up posters for Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month was an informative project to acknowledge AAPI history in America, but it ultimately was not enough to achieve the representation needed to learn more about Asian contributions to our society. As a school with a predominantly Asian population, learning such history is crucial.  

Optional electives such as Ethnic and Racial Studies offer a more thorough recognition of non-European societies, but the same is not required of mandatory humanities courses. For example, out of the 27 authors covered in the 2019-2020 Anthology of British Literature, six were women and none were racial minorities. Learning about a limited range of experiences fails to confront experiences divided by gender and racial boundaries. Especially at a school where a majority of the student demographic is not descended from European, more works from people of color authors can teach us about the importance of ethnic cultures in constructing our identities today. However, adding one poster or one text to a literary canon is not inclusion, but tokenism. Pairing them with the historical background of the experiences they write about will open up discussions about ethnic cultures. Making ethnic studies more mainstream is not a radical act of indoctrination, but an effort to include the history and perspectives of more identities.

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