PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Dr. Andrew Jolivette: ajolivette@ucsd.edu Dr. Christine Hong: cjhong@ucsc.edu |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UC Ethnic Studies Under Attack:
UC’s Racist, Anti-Black, Anti-Indigenous, and Anti-People of Color Policies Must End
San Diego, May 12, 2022
During a historic window characterized by mass demonstrations for Black lives, anti-Asian violence, and heightened white nationalism, the University of California (UC) is sabotaging the new area A-G ethnic studies requirement. Whereas the state of California has mandated ethnic studies at the high school level and the California State University system has implemented its new ethnic studies requirement, the University of California has allowed for racist external pressures to inform its deliberation around its proposed A-G ethnic studies requirement.
On the heels of an intensive year-long process that involved our developing and drafting the requirement, we, the UC-appointed members of the ethnic studies writing team, were informed today that the UC will instead be taking a “broader approach to include diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice courses.” This cannot stand. We call on all communities to support the original course criteria, as written and developed by leading ethnic studies experts and practitioners across the UC system. This new focus on watered-down “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) courses betrays student demands specifically for ethnic studies, and it fails to align with California’s mandated ethnic studies high school requirement.
Our proposed criteria are consistent with both the official state-approved Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum and an already approved ethnic studies transfer requirement that was enshrined into UC policy last year. By contrast, “DEI” is a corporate buzzword aimed at managing diversity in institutional settings, not centering the lived experiences of Native peoples and communities of color, their epistemologies, and their struggles within and against systems of colonialism and racism. A tepid requirement that includes social justice and DEI will not comply with the state’s mandated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum that requires ethnic studies-specific course work.
Members of the UC Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) have expressed fears about Fox News and white supremacist backlash. We also understand that the UC caved to spurious charges, in some cases advanced by people and organizations with a known history of racism, that our proposed criteria are “anti-Semitic” and disparaging to Jewish Americans. This is a LIE. Nowhere in our course criteria do we mention Israel, Jewish people, or Judaism, much less any specific religion. In fact, the proposal that we and other ethnic studies scholars and practitioners drafted leaves the question of ethnic studies and religion open for curriculum development at the district level. We kept the language flexible to allow for implementation by teachers of not only English literature and history, but also the STEM fields.
We, the UC-appointed ethnic studies writing team, call on the UC to proceed with courage and clarity. Over half a century has passed since California students inaugurated ethnic studies as a field of study at the university level. In a state that has been majority-minority since 2000, it is past time for a UC ethnic studies entrance requirement. Over 1000 individuals from across the state of California, among them hundreds of vibrant scholars hired into the UC system, as well as organizations, including the almost 19,000-member UAW 2865, have signed a statement in support of our A-G ethnic studies course criteria.
Ethnic studies is a grassroots field that has focused on people’s right to self-determination. This vision must be honored. Please send letters of support to the following people:
Resources
UC/CSU/CCC Ethnic Studies Councils in Support
IQC Members' Statement of Support of Proposed A-G Ethnic Studies