{"id":55506,"date":"2023-04-06T13:50:21","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T20:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/?p=55506"},"modified":"2023-04-06T13:56:25","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T20:56:25","slug":"in-defense-of-ethnic-studies-teaching-anti-racist-courses-despite-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/en\/in-defense-of-ethnic-studies-teaching-anti-racist-courses-despite-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of Ethnic Studies: Teaching Anti-Racist Courses Despite Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mara Cavallaro is El Tecolote\u2019s Report for America Corps Member who reports on mental health and healthcare inequality in the Latinx community.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the fall of 2018, Capuchino High School\u2014one of seven in the San Mateo Union High School District\u2014piloted an Ethnic Studies course. The entire freshman class was enrolled, and they were all taught by Jackie Rogers, who for multiple class periods a day, every day, welcomed 30 youngsters to their first academic discussions about identity, race, and gender. \u201cI\u2019m not your first Ethnic Studies teacher [though],\u201d she would say. \u201cFamilies, relatives, [and] ancestors\u201d have all been teachers already. \u201cEvery single one of [you] has been doing Ethnic Studies before stepping into [this] space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the year, in a survey of the nearly 200 students in that first cohort, 85 percent said they would recommend the course to other students. 80 percent said the class helped them feel \u201cmore empowered in their education,\u201d and nearly 70 percent felt more empowered in their communities. \u201cI remember the kids being really excited,\u201d Rogers says. \u201cIt was just wonderful. To provide this space for students \u2026 who may not have seen themselves in curriculum\u2014[for them] to learn more about their histories \u2026 and feel affirmed for the beauty that they bring into the space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That spring, the school board approved the semester-long course as a graduation requirement for the entire district\u2014following a rigorous course approval process. A few months after that, in the summer, the state of California made public its own draft curriculum. It seemed like mandatory Ethnic Studies was finally on the horizon\u2014until misrepresentations of the course came rolling in. There were claims that the state model curriculum was anti-Semitic, that it was unbalanced, that it was too political. \u201cMuch of the backlash came from American Jewish Zionist groups who opposed the inclusion of Palestinian topics\u2014including a mention of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement\u2014within the Arab American studies portion of the Asian American module,\u201d Jewish Currents<\/em> reported<\/a> in 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complaints forced the curriculum back into a revision process, where Arab American studies was removed from the Asian American module, and re-introduced in a new chapter called \u201cSeeking Models of Inter-Ethnic Bridge Building.\u201d Mentions of BDS, activists like Linda Sarsour, and Muslim-American congresswomen like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar were erased completely. Almost all of the writers of the original curriculum\u2014Ethnic Studies scholars\u2014asked for their names to be removed from the new, final version. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When AB 101\u2014the state bill requiring Ethnic Studies\u2014was on track to be approved in October of 2020, Governor Newsom vetoed it because of the backlash. The bill wasn\u2019t passed until a year later, with its revised model curriculum, in October of 2021. By then, Ethnic Studies had been running smoothly in the San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD) for years. Thousands of first-years had taken the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this year, amid a wider context of book bans, white supremacist historical erasure, and passage of \u2018anti-Critical Race Theory\u2019 legislation around the country, local backlash began to leak in. First, it was a Fox News article targeting the district\u2019s director of Ethnic Studies, Dr. Samia Shoman\u2014who also happens to be the only Palestinian, Muslim-American administrator in the SMUHSD. Fox News decried Shoman\u2019s support for classroom analysis of \u201csystemic racism and oppression\u201d as an \u201cextreme version of Black Lives Matter Curriculum,\u201d and attempted to paint her as anti-Semitic for criticizing the Israeli government\u2019s human rights abuses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rhetoric was all familiar. It featured the same mischaracterizations used to undermine the state\u2019s Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) in 2020, and the same frameworks being pushed in Florida<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s the same thing. It was only a matter of time before [backlash] came to San Mateo, California,\u201d Ligia Andrade Z\u00fa\u00f1iga, board vice president of the SMUHSD, told El Tecolote<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came the personal attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy work email was just full of hate mail,\u201d Shoman says. \u201cIt was awful. Vile, dirty, gross, invoking me, my family, my kids, wishing death. All of those things.\u201d It got so bad that the district had to place filters on her email, and delete her voicemail messages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of January, hundreds of copy-paste form letters had been sent to administration, demanding not only the removal of Shoman but an \u201cupdate [to the] Ethnic Studies curriculum.\u201d (Andrade Z\u00fa\u00f1iga, who combed through the emails, estimates that just five to ten percent were from parents who had kids in the district. Many were sent from established groups that opposed Ethnic Studies and Critical Race Theory. Others came from members of a local temple, where the template was distributed). According to the letter, Ethnic Studies placed too much emphasis on \u201coppression, colonization, resistance, and hegemony,\u201d and should focus instead on the \u201ccontributions\/accomplishments of ethnic groups,\u201d outside of their \u201cresistance.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strangely enough, the group leading this attack on Ethnic Studies in the SMUHSD is a non-profit called the Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies (ACES), a Foster City-based group founded by Elina Kaplan, who does not have kids in the district. The organization, which urges concerned parents to facilitate meetings between ACES and their local districts, has adopted the very name of the anti-racist curricula it seeks to undermine. To do so is a strategic move in a state like California, where legislation has mandated Ethnic Studies as a graduation requirement beginning with the class of 2030, and where a state model curriculum includes the content they seek to remove. While erasure in Florida is explicit, here, it is more veiled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACES\u2019 website lists, among other names, \u201calarming\u201d historical figures referenced in Ethnic Studies curricula\u2014like Angela Davis, bell hooks, Grace Lee Boggs, and Bobby Seale. Their alternate proposed list of \u201cpositive, non-violent, seminal role models\u201d includes people like Condoleeza Rice, former National Security Advisor and proponent of the United States\u2019 invasion of Iraq in 2003\u2014a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Like the form email sent to district board members, ACES has a problem with discussions about \u201cpower and oppression.\u201d \u200b\u200bThey oppose Critical Race Theory (a law school framework conflated by the right with anything that challenges racism embedded in present day institutions, including Ethnic Studies) but write that \u201csupporting or opposing CRT has nothing to do with\u2026whether one opposes racism.\u201d They call for more \u201cbalance\u201d\u2014but what does balance really mean in discussions about structural injustice? It\u2019s clear from their own lists which voices they seek to silence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By definition, Ethnic Studies is a field that addresses content that has been missing from traditional curricula\u2014an interdisciplinary study of history, institutions, power, race, and society that centers people of color. It is an anti-racist pedagogy\u2014and being anti-racist requires discussion about structural injustice and resistance to it. \u201cThey don\u2019t want us to use words like oppression, or racism, or indoctrination, or colonization,\u201d Andrade Z\u00fa\u00f1iga says. \u201cSorry, but that\u2019s what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
On March 15, the San Mateo Union High School District held a public school board \u201cstudy session,\u201d to address potential concerns with the Ethnic Studies curriculum and educate people on what exactly Ethnic Studies was. Screenshot from the of the Special Board Meeting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In March, the district held a public school board \u201cstudy session<\/a>,\u201d to address potential concerns with curriculum and educate people on what exactly Ethnic Studies was, since there seemed to be so much confusion. Teachers presented on the course\u2019s core tenets and goals, including the \u201cpursuit of justice and equity,\u201d \u201cgreater inclusivity,\u201d \u201cdeveloping a better understanding of others,\u201d and \u201cpromoting self-empowerment.\u201d They emphasized that contrary to backlash, Ethnic Studies curricula stood in defense of Jewish communities, and against anti-Semitism. Students spoke about their work in the class, from oral history projects interviewing grandparents to collaboration with Ramaytush Ohlone leaders to create a land acknowledgement. Survey data affirmed that a majority of students appreciated the course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, when it came time for public comment, some speakers called back again to mischaracterizations of Ethnic Studies to attack the class. One parent\u2014who did not have kids in the district\u2014complained that Ethnic Studies taught students \u201cto be entitled.\u201d Another speaker, Nadia Flamenco, in a comment seeping with bigotry, denounced the class as \u201cpushing the transgender agenda.\u201d Anti-semitism came up repeatedly, and one school board trustee, Jennifer Jacobson, questioned the course\u2019s approval process (all guidelines had been carefully followed). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like [backlash] has always been there, but it\u2019s been more emboldened with Donald Trump and [Governor Ron] DeSantis and the overturning of Roe vs. Wade<\/em>\u2014[by] a lot of these more extremist silencings of people,\u201d Andrade Z\u00fa\u00f1iga told El Tecolote<\/em>. Rogers, too, sees the backlash as in lockstep with educational erasures across the country. \u201cAttacks on Ethnic Studies, Critical Race Theory, LGBTQ+ education, the AP African American History curriculum,\u201d she lists. \u201cIt\u2019s been really hard \u2026 for a lot of teachers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jackie Rogers, an Ethnic Studies teacher at Capuchino High School, poses for a portrait in her classroom. Courtesy: Jackie Rogers <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the board study session, parents and educators who supported the course spoke too\u2014and emphasized how kids felt empowered by Ethnic Studies. Joy Henry, whose daughter is a freshman at Mills High School, described how the class made her fifteen-year-old \u201cfeel heard and seen,\u201d and taught her \u201chistory that include[d] her story.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexandra Dove, who teaches Government and Economics at Mills, emphasized a point she has made over and over again\u2014at every board meeting where claims of the curriculum\u2019s anti-Semitism were voiced. \u201cAs a Jewish woman \u2026 it\u2019s deeply upsetting to see my identity [and] my family\u2019s lived experiences being used in a way to demonize the work that I believe so deeply in,\u201d she said. \u201cNot once have we ever denied the Jewish experience in light of other experiences \u2026 This is obviously a narrative that is being perpetuated throughout our community\u2014and yet, there has never been a communication of incidents \u2026 We know that [in the United States] anti-Semitism is on the rise \u2026 I know that this is coming from places of trauma for those of you that are expressing that and I want to honor and validate that trauma that you are experiencing, because it is very hard to be a Jewish person in America right now. But this is not the class that is making it worse. This is the class that is making it better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next week, on April 13, another public study session has been scheduled to address complaints\u2014from largely the same parents and groups\u2014about the district\u2019s U.S. History curriculum, which includes LGBTQ+ history, disability history, and communities that have traditionally been underrepresented in curricula. Over the summer, there\u2019ll be another one on Ethnic Studies, where again, the class will be held under a microscope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hate the fact that I have to defend something that is so beautiful, that is so affirming, that is so necessary,\u201d Rogers says. \u201cThere is joy [and] community in our classrooms that may not be the case in other ones. I think that\u2019s the heart of Ethnic Studies. Action, community, critical thinking, discussion, joy, and love.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mara Cavallaro is El Tecolote\u2019s Report for America Corps Member who reports on mental health and healthcare inequality in the Latinx community. In the fall of 2018, Capuchino High School\u2014one of seven in the San Mateo Union High School District\u2014piloted an Ethnic Studies course. The entire freshman class was enrolled, and they were all taught […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88918,"featured_media":55509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,7],"tags":[19186,23678],"coauthors":[23520],"class_list":["post-55506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news","tag-ethnic-studies","tag-san-mateo-union-high-school-district","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Defense of Ethnic Studies: Teaching Anti-Racist Courses Despite Backlash - El Tecolote<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mara Cavallaro is El Tecolote\u2019s Report for America Corps Member who reports on mental health and healthcare inequality in the Latinx community. 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