In summary

The proposed model curriculum still follows a framework which divides students into victims and oppressors.

By Mauricio Cevallos, San Francisco

Mauricio Cevallos is with the Alliance for Constructive Ethnic Studies.

Re “High school ethnic studies – the third version”; Commentary, Dec. 13, 2020

Dan Walters’ accurate review of the evolution of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum overlooks serious problems in its third draft. 

While some offensive language was eliminated, it still follows a framework which glorifies violence, elevates separatist resistance, and divides students into victims and oppressors. 

Rather than address racism constructively, the draft applies an ideological litmus test, resulting in one-dimensional misrepresentation of ethnic groups and their role models. Peaceful agents of change, such as Martin Luther King Jr. and the late Rep. John Lewis, are excluded from the list of 154 “Important Historical Figures Among People of Color” – a list that includes countless violent and/or neo-Marxist revolutionaries.  

Clarence Jones, speechwriter and adviser to King, shared “great concern for the perversion of history that is being perpetrated by the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum.” 

The State Board of Education should replace the curriculum’s troubled framework with a constructive approach which builds empathy, respect and consideration of multiple perspectives.

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