Ethnic Studies Courses Likely To Be Met With Resistance, Although Now Required By California law
In August 2020, California passed a law that requires college students in the state university system to take an ethnic studies course in order to graduate. In essence, the California state legislature has made it mandatory for the nearly 500,000 students in the Cal State system to take the classes that student activists and others fought for universities to implement decades ago. While these classes are not without controversy, as a scholar who studies racial dynamics on college campuses, I argue their benefits outweigh their liabilities.
These classes are offered throughout the country at colleges and universities as varied and diverse as Bowling Green State University and the University of Washington. When these classes are taught as they were intended – with a heavy focus on issues of...
