The 13-5 vote of CSU trustees marks the first significant change to the university’s general education requirements in 40 years. The approved courses include the four core Ethnic studies disciplines AB 1460 requires, and adds courses on the history and culture of other oppressed groups, such as Muslims, Jews or LGBTQ people. The requirement goes into effect in the 2023-24 school year.
For decades, Ethnic Studies faculty, students and staff have argued and struggled to have Ethnic Studies as a requirement in the university curriculum as an indispensable contribution to a truly inclusive and quality education. Gov. Newsom should sign AB 1460 when it reaches his desk this week. It is in the best interest of preparing students for the global society in which they will live and work and eventually play important and leading roles. AB 1460, authored by Dr. Shirley Weber (D-79th District), addresses this issue in a clear and meaningful way. Under the law, beginning 2021-2022, in order to graduate, CSU students would be required to take a class in one of the four major ethnic group disciplines: Native American, African American, Latinx American or Asian American. The benefits of this requirement are numerous and include: its enhancing and expanding knowledge of the various peoples and cultures of the state, country and world; sharing and sharpening perspectives; improving interracial and intercultural relations; and helping prepare students for the diverse state, national and global community in which they will contribute and succeed.
In April 1992, violent riots broke out in Los Angeles after an almost all-White jury (one juror later “came out” as biracial 10 years later) handed down a not guilty verdict in the case of Rodney King, an African American man who four LAPD police officers tasered, subdued and beat severely with batons. During the unrest that followed, low-boiling tensions between African American residents in the neighborhood and immigrant Korean business owners heated up to an explosive six-day period of burning, looting and killings that left more than 50 people dead, about 1,000 more injured and over a $1 billion