Ethnic studies bill vetoed by California governor

CALIFORNIA'S governor misses the point of ethnic studies. I'm disappointed that last week, California's Gov. Brown vetoed AB 101, which would have required developing a curriculum of ethnic studies in in California schools.

Brown called the bill unnecessary and "redundant" because, he says, ethnic studies guidelines are already being devised for California's schools.

Brown can be so frustrating sometimes. He is progressive enough to approve a ban for schools to use of a derogatory name for the First Americans for their school mascot or athletic team; but then he'll turn around and not see the value of ethnic studies and why it needs legislation.

California's students will have to wait until college before they are introduced to "real" history, before they realize that people of color can write books, invent things to improve our quality of life or that the white perspective is not the only way to look at the world, not only in a social context but also in other areas such as STEM, the economy or politics.

I attended a high school that is highly diversified. Today, no ethnic group holds the majority. In my work I come across graduates from my alma mater who agree that one of the most valuable things they learned by attending this California high school is how to get along with all kinds of different peoples. They felt that high school experience prepared them for the real world.

As our high schools become more segregated by the haves and have-nots; which more times than not, translates to mean white-majority schools vs. schools with a majority of its students are Latino, Asian or African/Americans; it becomes even more critical that we learn about each other, our different perspectives, our diverse culture and the different roads we travel on.

It is not divisive as some critics have claimed. If anything, it makes us more aware and that simplistic explanations for the way some people were treated, i.e. the Japanese internment during World War II, were not that simple.

Until our schools teach history - with all its flaws as well as its accomplishments and stops ignoring the impact of those flaws on people of color - we will need ethnic studies to counterbalance the warped view that is currently being presented to our students. Waiting for college to become enlightened may be too late because not everybody goes to college.

The carrying on by supporters of presidential candidate Donald Trump and the totally inaccurate statements by other GOP candidates is the product of the one-sided point of view presented by today's history texts.

The accurate telling of history is even more critical today when conservative activists are trying to rewrite history by soft-pedaling slavery,  i.e. calling African captives brought to the U.S. "workers" instead of "slaves;" saying the cause of the Civil War was over "states rights" instead of "slavery."

In California's public schools today, there are more students of color than whites. Are we telling the "minorities" - or the new majority - that their histories don't matter? How does that shape their place in the world? Are they forever grateful to the Euro/Americans for allowing us to live in the world that textbooks tell us was created by Europe's descendants? Do think less of themselves because their writers, thinkers, scientists, activists and educators aren't worth mentioning in the school books?

If this bill was in effect, it would not have been necessary for Assemblymember Rod Bonta to introduce a bill mandating that the Filipino role in the 1965 Grape Strike be included in the studies of labor or history.

We urge the authors of AB 101, led by author Assemblymember Luis Alejo, to reintroduce this measure in the next session.

The proposal to teach ethnic studies in our schools is not some radical proposal. The social and academic value of ethnic studies curricula is well documented. We Americans are not always the good guys. Knowing that we're not always on the right side teaches us humility and maybe it keeps us from using our military might to intervene where we have no business being. Everyone benefits, in all disciplines, when the truth is told.