US rifts play out in classrooms

Advocates of studies addressing racism run up against conservative backlash

As the United States experiences surging racism and hate crimes, the country is seeing an intense debate over how to teach students about racism and its place in US history.

Ethnic studies, which focuses on racial and ethnic groups that are traditionally not covered in the Euro-centric history courses, has been increasingly embraced by school districts as a way to address racism. But critics, largely conservative parents and lawmakers, say lessons on so-called critical race theory would do more harm than good.

California will require students to complete an ethnic studies course to graduate from high school, starting with the class of 2030, while schools will be required to offer ethnic studies courses starting from 2025.

The San Francisco, Fresno and San Diego unified school districts in the state already require their students to take ethnic studies.

Other states are introducing bills that would require schools to incorporate ethnic studies in the curricula. Students in Utah could have a new ethnic studies standard under a bill introduced in the state Senate this month.

In Minnesota, a similar bill would incorporate ethnic studies into social studies graduation requirements.

There also is a growing push for public schools to require teaching Asian American history across the country. New Jersey and Illinois now require Asian American studies after state lawmakers passed measures last year, and several other state legislatures have proposals under consideration.

Nearly 11,000 hate incidents against Asian people had been reported to tracking platform Stop AAPI Hate between March 19, 2020, and Dec 31, 2021.

"According to research, ethnic studies have been demonstrated to help all students," Russell Jeung, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, told China Daily. "For students of color, it helps their academic performance and helps at-risk students stay in school. For white students, it helps reduce prejudicial attitudes and learn how to become more supportive of civil rights.

"So ethnic studies are important for civic education and career education, because people need to learn to work in diverse work environments and to think critically," said Jeung, who is also a professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University.

Ethnic studies has enabled the students to see history from the perspectives of traditionally overlooked groups, particularly African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans, said teachers in the San Diego Unified School District.

Despite the recent studies and educators' testimony to the benefits of ethnic studies, some parents have protested against the curricula, saying they would create tensions between students and make white students feel guilty.

"Those concerns are unfounded. Like those parents, we all want to promote racial equality and racial empathy. So the aim of ethnic studies is not to divide but to bridge and connect people," said Jeung.

The discussion about ethnic studies is becoming increasingly political in the US, as the Republicans try to block efforts to teach the history of racism or race-focused curricula in schools.

"I think that Republicans are using critical race theory as a boogeyman to inspire fear among their white constituents and to rally their base in the same way, scapegoating Asians for COVID-19," said Jeung.

The motivation is to "mobilize on fear and then gain more power", he said. "It's the same racist and xenophobic tactic" of the politicians who stoked fear against Chinese people during the period when the Chinese Exclusion Act was introduced in the 19th century, he said.