CRITICAL RACE THEORY BATTLE REACHES S.D.
Schools say ethnic studies curricula present history accurately; foes say it pits racial groups against each other
In states across the country and now in San Diego, public schools are coming under fire from politically conservative activists and some parents who say the schools are spreading critical race theory.
Local groups are holding protests at school districts, saying critical race theory amounts to indoctrination of students. And they’re fighting ethnic studies courses, social justice teaching and other school anti-racism efforts, saying they all amount to critical race theory.
On Thursday some community members spoke against a new diversity, equity and inclusion policy that the Solana Beach School Board passed unanimously. Groups also recently protested the ethnic studies curriculum at San Diego Unified and a proposed curriculum at Poway Unified, which will debut ethnic studies this fall.
The objectors argue that critical race theory is an inflammatory political ideology that pits minorities against White people and shouldn’t be taught in schools.
Proponents, including educators and students, say ethnic studies, including critical race theory, help them learn and understand more about history and the world.
“I think (critical race theory) is important, especially for students of color in schools, because through
out our K-12 system we’re not taught much about our own race,” said Felix Long, a rising senior at Westview High in Poway Unified. He said he is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent and he rarely learns anything about his race, culture or ethnicity in school.
He said in history class, lessons involving people of color often are discussed briefly and feel glossed over. History courses should go more in depth about people of color to provide students with a better racial understanding, he said.
Not everyone agrees. Recently a group called the Californians For Equal Rights Foundation filed a civil rights complaint against San Diego Unified, claiming the district’s antibias, anti-racist teacher training is based on controversial and politicized ideas and terms like Whiteness, White privilege and anti-racism.
San Diego Unified officials last week declined to comment on the complaint, which was submitted to the district, the San Diego County Office of Education and the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.
District officials emphasized they are teaching ethnic studies, which is different from critical race theory.
“There seems to be a belief that ethnic studies and critical race theory are one and the same, and that is not accurate,” said Wendy Ranck-Buhr, instructional support officer for San Diego Unified.
Poway’s Associate Superintendent Carol Osborne said in a statement, “Poway Unified is not teaching critical race theory. Our focus is on elevating humanity through education, fostering understanding of different perspectives and respect for one another. The district’s responsibility is to ensure each student and staff member feels safe so they can learn and work.”
In San Diego much of the organized opposition to critical race theory has come from Californians For Equal Rights, a group whose leaders also fought to preserve Proposition 209, the measure California voters passed in 1996 to modify the state constitution to prohibit preferential treatment, such as affirmative action, based on race, sex or national origin.
Other groups also were listed in a joint statement against critical race theory, including San Diego Asian Americans for Equality, Concerned Parents of San
Diego, Free Black Thought, and Parents Defending Education.
What is critical race theory?
Critical race theory was developed in the 1970s by several legal scholars of color. The key idea of the theory is that racism is not just perpetuated by individual biases; it has been embedded into the legal system, with effects that continue today.
One common theme of critical race theory is that systemic discrimination against Black people has taken various legal forms throughout U.S. history. For instance, when legalized slavery ended, discrimination against Black people legally continued through Jim Crow racial segregation laws and later through housing covenants that explicitly prohibited Black people from owning property in certain neighborhoods.
Critical race theory is often a component of — but is not the same as — ethnic studies, which is what San Diego Unified and other districts say they are offering students.
Ethnic studies is broader than critical race theory, said Andrew Jolivétte, chair of ethnic studies and founding director of Native American and Indigenous studies at UC San Diego. Ethnic studies looks at how race and ethnicity relate to a range of disciplines, such as literature, political science and the media, he said.
Jolivétte, who is Louisiana Creole, said critical race theory is a theory-based approach to studying race and racism in the law, but one can apply its ideas and theories to racism wherever it exists.
Some opponents of critical race theory stress that they are against racism too, but they believe critical race theory makes racism worse.
Frank Xu, who is president of Californians For Equal Rights and a parent living in Poway Unified’s district, said true equal treatment is not defining people by their race but by their individual merits and accomplishments, and just because somebody is not actively anti-racist it doesn’t mean they’re automatically racist — a common belief among anti-racist activists.
Xu said he is a Chinese immigrant born right after the Chinese Cultural Revolution, when revolutionists brutally attacked people who were not part of their cause. He sees anti-racism as an incendiary ideology that also threatens to divide people.
“Those curricula are dividing people into different races … and labeling some groups as oppressors and some other groups as victims and based on skin color. That is the most dangerous part,” Xu said. “I believe race is a really valid topic ... but the way the school teaches it should be open to other ideologies and not just a one-side story.”
Some public commenters at a recent Poway School Board meeting said they believe critical race theory is racist because it makes false or harmful assumptions about people, their socioeconomic status and more — all based on their skin color.
One woman used herself as an example, saying that even though she is not a racial minority she still experienced socioeconomic hardships as a young pregnant woman.
Xu said he agrees there are racial disparities in society, but he doesn’t believe systemic racism is the cause. For example, he said, public education is deteriorating and America is falling behind other countries because its schools aren’t teaching kids math and reading well enough, not because there’s racism.
He said systemic racism doesn’t exist anymore because he sees laws like the 14th Amendment and the California Constitution sufficiently protecting against discrimination.
Lessons learned
Educators say ethnic studies and critical race theory are not about teaching students to accuse or hate White people, nor are they about making generalized assumptions about people based on race.
Poway Unified’s proposed ethnic studies curriculum, for example, outlines social justice standards for students to follow, such as relating to all people as individuals rather than representatives of groups, identifying stereotypes, and “practicing empathy, respect and understanding, regardless of our similarities or differences.”
“It’s not about saying, ‘Oh, the country is a horrible place,’ or, ‘We’re bashing people who are White,’” Jolivétte said. “It’s actually about understanding race in the same way we try to understand biology, for example, as a factor in human life.”
Educators say ethnic studies does aspire to fix some racial injustices by telling a history that is more inclusive of many societal groups.
Ricardo Medina, an ethnic studies resource teacher for San Diego Unified, said ethnic studies celebrates what makes people similar and different from each other. It highlights stories and contributions of communities that have historically been left out of traditional school curricula — such as Indigenous peoples, Arab Americans, Chicanos, Asian Americans and Blacks.
Ethnic studies could prepare students to join social and environmental movements to create positive change, Medina said.
“It’s so that students can ... do the dreamwork,” he said. “They can re-conceptualize what tomorrows look
like, tomorrows that are free of racism and tomorrows that are free of all oppression.”
Teachers are not supposed to tell students what to believe, Ranck-Buhr said; they’re supposed to teach students how to ask questions and to back up their own conclusions with evidence.
Ethnic studies will naturally make people feel uncomfortable, educators said, because there are many uncomfortable truths in history. But ignoring them or excluding them from history books is the same thing as lying to kids, Jolivétte said.
The way to prevent history from repeating itself is to confront it and learn from it, though many people are unwilling to do that, Jolivétte said.
“Why are we afraid of reconciliation or righting the past wrongs that maybe we’ve done?” he asked. “This is the other problem in this country, we think of confrontation as a bad thing ... When you confront something, that’s when you can actually address it and try to do something better.”
Poway Unified’s new ethnic studies curriculum came about after some students last year said they wanted a history curriculum that was more representative of various racial groups.
Ashuta Date, a 16-yearold sophomore at Westview High School in Poway Unified, disagrees with the idea that critical race theory would create divisions in the classroom. She said most students have learned about history from a Eurocentric perspective, but expanding teaching to other races and cultures can show people how to respect one another.
For instance, she said, she learned from her parents that people of color have made many discoveries in areas like math and science. When Ashuta, who is Indian, brought this up to her friends, they were also surprised because they were not taught in school about such accomplishments by people of color, she said.
“This curriculum is going to teach people how to respect each other; it’s not going to divide us,” Ashuta said. “If people think that there’s going to be divisions that will be caused by this curriculum, they are simply afraid that we are going to learn about the impacts other cultures had on society — instead of them simply worrying about the Eurocentric view of history and literature.”
Many high schools in California already offer ethnic study courses, usually as electives. In March the State Board of Education adopted a model ethnic studies curriculum that was also the subject of much controversy.