SUPPORT CRITICAL ETHNIC STUDIES

The Santa Clara County Board of Education passed a resolution in 2019 in support of Ethnic Studies. 

That set in motion the Santa Clara County Ethnic Studies Initiative. The initiative was developed to meet the needs of students, families, communities, teachers, school and school districts, so many of whom have been seeking leadership in developing Ethnic Studies curriculum and approaches in their schools (as reflected in the number of school boards in the county that have passed resolutions to include Ethnic Studies in their curricula and sought support in doing so. 

Right-wing activists are organizing in Santa Clara County to attack the Ethnic Studies initiative. There has been the creation of a petition that claims the county office of education initiative in Ethnic Studies is rooted in anti-American propaganda. We feel that this petition is based on a lack of understanding and is a clear misrepresentation of the great work of the Office of Education, and its education partners.

That being said, we felt that the best strategy for responding to the petition was to organize our community in mass and display the support for Critical Ethnic Studies across the county. The county ethnic studies initiative is aligned with the new CSU Ethnic Studies requirement and the resolutions and commitments of so many districts and schools in the county. Their accusations against critical ethnic studies are unfounded and rooted in ignorance.

One piece of our strategy is to organize an opposing petition that demands the county maintain their current strategy for Ethnic Studies, includes Critical Ethnic Studies as a component of this strategy and preserves the pedagogy of the curriculum.

#DefendEthnicStudies #CriticalEthnicStudies

Details about County Ethnic Studies Initiative:

The initiative was developed to meet the needs of students, families, communities, teachers, school and school districts, so many of whom have been seeking leadership in developing Ethnic Studies curriculum and approaches in their schools (as reflected in the number of school boards in the county that have passed resolutions to include Ethnic Studies in their curricula and sought support in doing so. 

This project was a collaboration between the County Office and the College of Education at SJSU and a local teacher and School Board Trustee. The project is fully aligned with the new Ethnic Studies requirement in the California State University system and supports teachers to better prepare their students for college success.

Details About Critical Ethnic Studies:

The purpose of Critical Race Theory / Critical Ethnic Studies is to call for a society that is egalitarian, a society that is just, and a society that is inclusive, and in order to get there, we have to name the barriers to achieving a society that is inclusive. Critical Ethnic Studies offers a way of seeing the world that helps people recognize the effects of historical racism in modern American life. The intellectual movement behind the idea was started by legal scholars as a way to examine how laws and systems uphold and perpetuate inequality for traditionally marginalized groups. In fact, the Critical Race Theory movement is nothing more than a collection of activists and scholars interested in studying and transforming the relationship between race, racism, and power.

Contact us at sccethnicstudies@gmail.com

Resources

Letter of Support for Critical Ethnic Studies by the Deans of the University of California Law Schools:

https://law.ucla.edu/news/joint-statement-deans-university-california-law-schools-about-value-critical-race-theory-0