Petition by GENup (www.generationup.net), Diversify our Narrative (www.diversifyournarrative.com), andTeach Our History California Coalition (https://www.teachourhistoryca.org)

To access the petition for all (including professors, community members, and beyond) visit the following: https://forms.gle/ypkamwj4wTr6YeUH7 

Read below for the STUDENT ONLY petition:

We, as students in California, and those in support, urge the University of California to unanimously pass the proposed Ethnic Studies UC A-G requirement and criteria, as created by ethnic studies experts, practitioners, and students. 

Our education has been conditioned by the genocide and erasure of Native peoples. It has been shaped by state-sanctioned institutional violence rooted in slavery and inherent in police brutality against Black, Brown, and poor communities. It bears the imprint of exclusionary immigration policies and the persistence of anti-Asian racism during a time of pandemic. It has further been shaped by the labor exploitation of and border brutality against Latine communities. And the list of oppressions, discrimination, and violence does not end there.

Pushback against this requirement and criteria is fueled by both explicit and implicit racism. People of color and Native peoples know all too well the physical and emotional trauma that racism can create, baring its teeth to produce visceral and psychological pain that suppresses our powers and makes us question our sanity. Time and time again, white supremacy has infiltrated our communities to harm us, police us, oppress us, silence us -- and divide us. 

We inherited an educational system that has failed to center the histories of Native peoples and communities of color, and we challenge the UC to now stand with students and prove their commitment to combating racism and forms of oppression by passing the UC A-G ethnic studies requirement and criteria for our students of California and beyond.

Public education is for us, the students. We must reclaim our space. We insist on an education that addresses our needs and centers our histories in our classrooms. We deserve to see people of color and Native peoples represented in an anti-racist curriculum that empowers our voices and centers our lived experiences, so we can foster a more racially, educationally, and socially just and equitable world. 

Decades of high school walkouts, college student protests, rallies, sit-ins, and hunger strikes to demand racial justice and equity in the classroom have resulted in this policy to integrate ethnic studies as a UC A-G Admissions Requirement. UC students galvanized this requirement by creating a petition, spreading the word on social media, and advocating for it to the UC Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS). This policy was created by and for students, so our voices must be prioritized and uplifted in this process to center anti-racism in our education. The proposed requirement and criteria align with the California State Board of Education’s unanimously approved Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC), and the California State Board of Education’s Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) Ethnic Studies Teachers affirm the criteria’s congruence with the state’s ESMC. The A-G criteria that we must defend was written by experts in the field and draws from the life-affirming knowledges of Native peoples and communities of color as created, practiced, and expanded over centuries.  

Ethnic studies is not new, nor are the inherently racist attacks against the field that continue today. We recall how Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) strikers inaugurated the field of ethnic studies and stand on the shoulders of those fierce students who came before us. Now, we also stand in solidarity with ethnic studies experts and trust their expertise in this process. We cannot permit forces with no knowledge of the field to define ethnic studies beyond recognition. 

If the UC fails to support the voices of us as students and our communities, then we will mobilize in solidarity to express our love, values, experiences, and knowledges for ethnic studies – for our education and out of commitment to a world we have a responsibility to realize. As part of a movement that stretches back to the TWLF and includes all ethnic studies student activists and teacher-practitioners since, as well as people of color and Native peoples who have never had the opportunity to engage with life-affirming courses, we unconditionally support this ethnic studies requirement and criteria that will unsilence and empower our stories in our classrooms.