Arizona has passed a law placing restrictions on “ethnic studies.” This law is clearly racist. It deprives Hispanic and black students of an appropriate introduction to their history and culture.
The law is based on a fundamental misunderstanding. It fails to recognize that all studies are ethnic studies. The education that I received growing up in the 1950s and ’60s was presented as an ethnically neutral education. It wasn’t. It was an introduction to the history and culture of white people like me and almost all of my classmates and teachers. It ignored the place of ethnic minorities in American history, and when it didn’t, it grossly distorted it.
“Non-ethnic” studies are white studies. That’s why ethnic studies are both appropriate and necessary. All students should be required to take them. The new Arizona law sees white as the norm, and that is racist, pure and simple.
Rev. Dr. Thomas C. Sorenson
(Ph.D. in history
Monroe
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