AMERICANS FOR EQUALITY SENDS COALITION TO CA SENATE

June 15th, 2021

In response to AB 101, a California Bill which would mandate a divisive ethnic studies curriculum as a high school graduation requirement, AFE PAC wrote a coalition letter in an attempt to persuade senators to vote against the bill. The letter was additionally signed by Vietnamese-American Republican Council of Northern California, Silicon Valley Chinese Association, Southern California Hindus, and Orange County Hindus. Please read the full letter below:

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Senators, 

As members of Americans for Equality, and on behalf of a coalition of multiracial organizations, we urge you to vote against AB 101, which would require ethnic studies courses as a high school graduation requirement. 

While it is important to learn about the struggles people of color have faced in the United States, the goal of doing so is to come together as Americans, to show that race shouldn’t matter in America.

Unfortunately, the ethnic studies curriculum at most schools does not teach this concept. In fact, current conceptions of ethnic studies lean heavily on primordialism, or the idea that race has been relevant to humans since the dawn of time, a fact easily refuted by science given that, initially, all of our ancestors were indeed from Africa.

Furthermore, current ethnic studies curricula take such primordialism and combine it with false generalizations. For example, in school, students were told that certain groups viz. Whites and Asians were always oppressors, while all other people of color were part of the oppressed throughout history. Other examples include teachings that men have always been the oppressors, and that women have always been the oppressed, which completely disregards the existence of indigenous matriarchal societies such as in the Kerala Region of India, and thus ironically pushes a White colonialist narrative in which the experience of indigenous people are erased.

To add insult to injury, many curricula further claim that the attitudes of oppressed people of color do not matter, as they have no effect in the world of the oppressors. A large group of us who are signing are indeed people of color, and various examples in history, including the recent racial turmoil we have seen, have taught us that our attitudes and voices do actually matter. Any curriculum that teaches otherwise is not only historically inaccurate, but also demeaning to all people of color from whom it takes away a sense of actorship. 

Before you vote on this bill, then, Senators, we ask that you consider what the ethnic studies curriculum that AB 101 pushes for would actually look like. At the very least, we hope that you come to the conclusion that such a curriculum must be defined before this bill is put into action, to ensure that it is critical, accurate, and respectful of all people. In voting NO, Senator,  you will be speaking out for true Equality for all Americans, and for that, we thank you. 

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Signed, 

Americans for Equality

Vietnamese-American Republican Council of Northern California
Silicon Valley Chinese Association 

Orange County Hindus

Southern California Hindus

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