THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON/
Students applying to any of the University of California’s 10 campuses soon may soon be required to take ethnic studies courses taught through an “anti-racist and anti-colonial” lens, following a faculty board vote meeting last week.
The University of California’s Academic Senate on March 30 considered “course content guidelines” for ethnic studies courses that high schoolers will be required to take before applying to the school system. The guidelines mandate students learn about “the impact of systems of power and oppression,” such as “empire,” “white supremacy,” “anti-Blackness,” “xenophobia,” and “patriarchy” in the courses.
This is the latest step in a years-long battle over ethnic studies in California, where the State Assembly and Department of Education have in recent years proposed several controversial drafts of course standards. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D.) vetoed a State Assembly Bill in 2020 that would have implemented an earlier draft of the model ethnic studies curriculum—which drew ire from conservatives for including chants to Aztec gods and excluding Jews from discussions about oppressed religious and ethnic minorities. After the department rewrote model standards, Newsom signed a separate bill last fall to require high schools to teach ethnic studies by 2025. Continue reading…
