Article by Jennifer Lee Published in Brookings
Jennifer Lee, Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences at Columbia University, was recently published as part of How We Rise, a project from the Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion initiative at Brookings focused on policy solutions to upend structural racism:
Reckoning with science, medicine, and scapegoating
On Oct. 8, California became the first state to require Ethnic Studies courses for students in order to graduate from high school. All California high schools must offer Ethnic Studies beginning in the fall of 2025, and all students must complete one semester starting with the graduating class of 2030. In signing the bill, Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged that “America is shaped by our shared history, much of it painful and etched with woeful injustice.” Students “must understand our nation’s full history if we expect them to one day build a more just society.”
This is long overdue. Ethnic Studies will help Californians understand how our past informs our present, including the surge in anti-Asian violence and hate during the coronavirus pandemic.