POINT: Brown’s ethnic studies veto fails to provide support for students of color

The past month has been rife with diversity debates here at USC. After our Undergraduate Student Government president’s experience with a racially motivated attack went viral, inciting more students of color to share their experiences on campus, many have proposed systemic changes to greater incorporate diversity into the University, be it through a vice president for diversity or a human rights center. And while the University can — and should — work harder to fund cultural centers and hire faculty of color to promote diversity, we’d be kidding ourselves if we really believed that USC administration could single-handedly solve the problem of the learned and internalized racism that has plagued the willfully colorblind millennial generation.

Gov. Jerry Brown broke new ground earlier this month when he made California the first U.S. state to ban the Native slur “redskins” from public schools’ team mascots statewide. So last week, when Brown vetoed Bill AB 101 mandating ethnic studies — the study of other cultures through differing perspectives — he surprised diversity advocates and echoed an institutional ignorance toward not only today’s insidious manifestation of eurocentrism in education, but also its lack of structural support during K-12 education for students of color.

Eurocentrism during K-12 education has been well-documented and yet it continues to persist. As a 2011 National Education Association review of K-12 textbooks revealed, “Whites continue to receive the most attention and appear in the widest variety of roles, dominating story lines and lists of accomplishments. African Americans, the next most represented racial group, appear in a more limited range of roles and usually receive only a sketchy account historically, being featured mainly in relationship to slavery. Asian Americans and Latinos appear mainly as figures on the landscape with virtually no history or contemporary ethnic experience. Native Americans appear mainly in the past.”

The exclusive portrayal of people of color only as they relate to whiteness devalues the accomplishments of individuals in those subcommunities and continues to reinforce a greater power structure that promotes white achievement at the expense of that of people of color.

As a corollary, the deliberate effort to learn about other types of people that ethnic studies entails provides structural support for students of color to reflect on, and take pride in, their heritage. And giving  white students the opportunity to learn about differing ethnic perspectives allows the next generation to become just a little more tolerant of other kinds of people. Ethnic studies is good for diversity, and it’s good for equity.

Opponents of ethnic studies worry that the class would jeopardize the prominence of STEM education in K-12 curricula. But just as it provides institutional support for students of color to succeed in their careers and academic education, ethnic studies also empowers them to achieve in STEM classes. And it gives white students a framework for productive collaboration with students of color both during K-12 education and for years afterwards.

Brown, however, had a different reason for vetoing the bill. He stated that the Instructional Quality Commission is already revising state standards to include ethnic studies, and thus AB 101 would be redundant. But such an explanation skirts the issue at hand — considering that AB 101 would have required the IQC “to evaluate existing standards, curricula, programs and training regarding ethnic studies at the high school level,” the bill works with the IQC instead of instituting a separate process. Brown’s statement, then, may really be more of a political answer in a state with the second highest nonwhite population, clocking in at 61.5 percent.

At USC, the diversity requirement allows students to explore and understand differing cultures. But two decades of an education that leaves out communities of color cannot be righted in one University class. It’s time for the effort for a more holistic education to pervade past the halls of higher education and into those of California high schools. Diversity, after all, comes from the ground up.

Sonali Seth is a sophomore majoring in political science and policy, planning and development. She is also the editorial director of the Daily Trojan. “Point/Counterpoint” runs Mondays.