Dr. Rosa Rivera-Furumoto and the Call for Climate Justice: Mothers, Memory, and the Earth, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

Dr. Rosa Rivera-Furumoto and the Call for Climate Justice: Mothers, Memory, and the Earth

by 

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

I recently watched Cal State Northridge Chicana/o Studies professor, Dr. Rosa Rivera-Furumoto’s powerful KAN Talk on Climate Justice, and I have not stopped thinking about it. Her message—delivered with the grace of an educator and the urgency of an activist—reminds us that the fight for environmental sustainability is inseparable from the struggle for cultural survival, educational justice, and community well-being. 

She asks the hardest questions like what difference does policy make if we no longer have clean drinking water? Grounded in the lived experiences of Mexican American and Latina/o mothers, grandmothers, community members, and university students and an organization, Padres Pioneros/Parent Pioneers, that she co-founded, her work reveals how climate justice is also a story of love—for family, for culture, and for the Earth itself.

Dr. Rivera-Furumoto’s model begins with the preservation and revitalization of language, culture, values, and traditions drawn from Chicana/o, Latina/o, and Native American communities. This is not nostalgia; it is survival. The ancestral ways of knowing that she uplifts—reciprocity, gratitude, respect for the land and water—hold deep ecological wisdom that our contemporary systems have forgotten. In her hands, sustainability is not a new idea but an ancient memory calling us home, inviting us to listen again to the teachings of our elders and to the Earth.

Drawing inspiration from Freirean pedagogy, Dr. Rivera-Furumoto teaches climate literacy as liberation. Her practices invite critical reflection and collective action, connecting local challenges such as food deserts, rising heat, and air pollution to global systems of inequality and environmental racism. Through dialogue and shared inquiry, participants learn to see themselves as agents of change rather than passive recipients of environmental harm. It is a pedagogy of hope rooted in praxis—the joining of reflection and action for transformation.

None of this is easy. It is nevertheless a growing movement of educators, mothers, and students leading community-based sustainability efforts rooted in culture and compassion. Her example reminds us that even in the face of systemic inequity, grassroots efforts can plant the seeds of transformation.

Her call echoes loudly here in Texas, where the climate crisis is no longer a distant threat but a daily reality. As heat waves intensify, water grows scarce, and vulnerable communities suffer most, we must recognize that climate justice and educational justice are inseparable. The same structures that devalue public education also devalue the planet and its people. Addressing one without the other only deepens the harm.

Her approach is intergenerational, creating spaces of learning that bring together children, parents, grandparents, and extended kin, where knowledge flows in every direction. In community gardens and workshops, young people dig their hands into the soil beside elders who share stories of traditional planting cycles and herbal medicine. These gatherings transform environmental education into cultural renewal. 

If we are to confront the climate crisis with honesty and courage, we must also confront the systems that disconnect us from the land and from one another. Dr. Rivera-Furumoto shows us that resistance can bloom in gardens, in classrooms, and in every act of care that restores balance to our world. The future, she reminds us, is not something we await—it is something we grow.

Rosa RiVera Furumoto - KAN Talk

Call to action on climate change. Description of some of the strategies and practices employed by Mexican American and Latina/o mothers, grandmothers, community members, and university students to address climate change and sustainability issues in a low-income Latina/o community.  The talk will address challenges and future directions. The model is based on these key principles and practices: 1 Preservation and revitalization of the language, culture, values, and traditions of Chicana/o/Latina/o and Native American community members;
2 Involvement and engagement of multiple generations in the teaching and learning processes including children, parents, grandparents, and other kin and community members;
3 Critical pedagogical practices to promote critical thinking, reflection and action regarding climate change, sustainability, and other social justice issues and;
4 Promoting connection, love, and respect for nature and the environment via outdoors exploration and the establishment of urban gardens and forests.

Keynote Address by Dr. José Angel Gutiérrez—"Chicano Rights Movements: Then and Now" (2014)

Friends,

I just came across this powerful video of Dr. José Angel Gutiérrez speaking at the 2014 LEAD Conference in San Bernardino—and I had to share it. If you’ve ever wanted a window into the heart of the Chicano Movement, this is a good place to start. Dr. Gutiérrez isn’t just a civil rights icon—he’s an iconoclast, a fearless truth-teller who has spent his life fighting for the dignity, voice, and power of our communities. If you read the statement attached to the film that you can view below—and you listen to his presenation—I'm sure you will see how he is a force of nature.

I find his discussion of second- and third-generation Mexican Americans—or better said, "Chicanos," and how holding this specific standpoint endowed entire cadres—whose parents and grandparents were also part of the one million people that migrated to Texas in 1910 when the Mexican Revolution began. This resulted in a critical mass, of his generation with a kind of perspective and wisdom that did not take "no" for an answer. The research literature refers to this as the dual frame of reference.

However, even "crossing over" itself, in historical perspective, was actually a coming home for those who were displaced and dispossessed by Anglo settler colonials who happened to be the first "illegal aliens" or "undocumented migrants" to these parts. This is the history that the powers that be do not want you to know.

In any case, I think it a good and appropriate conversation to consider how generational status coincides temporally with the revolution and the kind of consciousness among youth that later came of age in the 1950s and 1960s where the seeds of resistance took root among youth like Gutierrez who later became the vanguard of the Mexican American Civil Rights movement—which along with Blacks, Asians, and Native Americans—resulted in the civil rights policies and legislation that are presently under serious attack by the republican administration at the state and national level.

Dr. Gutierrez' parents were born in Mexico and Dr. Gutierrez was born in Texas. They were able to judge matters similarly as a generation because they became skilled border crossers, symbolic and real. Other, especially later, generations can also have a dual frame of reference, but more by learning about it and what it means for those that experience it—if they, too, want to embark on traversing symbolic borders of language, culture, class, and so on, as the case may be.

I also appreciate his enunciations that we, as Chicanas and Chicanos, are on our homeland and that we are "hosts," and that the dominant group in power are our guests. So, a little respect here, okay?

I do respectfully disagree with Dr. Gutierrez on one important detail. Paraphrasing, he said that

I also don't like how he derided Pres. Obama while agreeing that I am disturbed by he deported 3 million people during his administration (

From founding MAYO and La Raza Unida Party to organizing school walkouts in Crystal City, his life’s work has been about challenging systems that were never built for Mexicans, in the first place. Watching this talk, I was reminded not only of how far we've come, but all that we still carry forward from eras gone by—the same fire, the same questions, and the same call to act.

-Angela Valenzuela

Reference

Garsd, J., & Inskeep, S. (2024, December 5). Lessons learned from the Obama administration's deportation of millions. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/12/05/1229415821/lessons-learned-from-the-obama-administrations-deportation-of-millions

Dr. José Angel Gutiérrez is a pivotal figure and one of the iconic founding fathers of the Chicano rights movements. He is an attorney (Dallas TX) and Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington; Founder of the Center for Mexican American Studies. Dr. Gutierrez, along with Cesar Chavez, Reies López Tijerina, and Corky Gonzales, stands out as among the most important and influential leaders of the Chicano movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. 

He was a founding member of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) in 1967, one of the first student activist groups of the Chicano movement; and founding member and past president of the political third-party La Raza Unida Party, which left its mark on the political scene, challenging Democratic and Republican parties alike to court the ignored Mexican American and Latino voter. 

Dr. Gutiérrez was one of many activists working to change public education on a local level in the 1960s and 70s. Born in Crystal City, Texas, and educated in local schools, Gutiérrez mobilized the community to demand equal treatment for Chicano students. He was lead organizer of the Winter Garden Project, the project that which led to the now famous walkout of 1969. 

Dr. Gutiérrez has been organizer, founder and co-founder of several other organizations such as the Mexican American Unity Council (MAUC), Ciudadanos Unidos, Obreros Unidos Independientes, Becas Para Aztlán, Oregon Council for Hispanic Advancement, Northwest Voter Registration and Education Project, and Grupo de Apoyo para Immigrantes Latin Americanos (GAILA). He has been the subject of many articles and film documentaries, including the PBS video series, CHICANO! The Mexican American Struggle for Civil Rights, and is mentioned in many Chicano history and political science books. 

He was also featured as an "Innovator" in the PBS documentary series - School: the Story of American Public Education. Most recently Dr. Gutiérrez was featured in a segment of: “Prejudice and Pride: the Chicano Movement”, which was part of the PBS series - "Latino Americans." Introduction / Moderator: Mary Valdemar, Vice President, Latino Faculty, Staff & Administrators Association,

San Bernardino Community College District, and Co-Founder, Core Team & Volunteer Support Staff, Chicano Indigenous Community for Culturally Conscious Advocacy and Action (ChiCCCAA) Speaker: José Angel Gutiérrez, Attorney, Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington, founding member of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO), and founding member and past president of La Raza Unida Party.

This address is date/time stamped: March 27, 2014; 4:20 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Share our links and show your online community that Latino education is the economic imperative of our time, and the civil rights issue of our generation. / leadprojects / leadprojects / leadprojects / leadcsusb http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&... / leadprojects

Essential Politics: The recall isn’t just about California. It’s a preview of where 2022 might be heading

I'm sure that along with the vast majority of you, I'm so glad and relieved about the failure of Gov. Gavin Newsom's recall election that took place yesterday. Many of us feared low turnout, but the voters showed up and a Latino and multiracial electorate propelled the successful result. Of continuing concern with respect to the polarization in our society is the Republican Party's extremist stance and tactics. According to this piece:

"In January, a Times investigation by Anita Chabria and Paige St. John found that recall campaign leaders sought to capitalize on Republican disappointment and allied with radical and extreme elements to help collect signatures. Some early recall backers were linked to QAnon, the Proud Boys, far-right militias and other extremist groups that share support for Trump, online organizing tactics and distrust of elections."

Our democracy is much too precious to leave in the hands of those who would destroy it simply because they do not like the outcomes of elections. They want a gerrymandered system where politicians pick their voters instead of the other way around with voters deciding who will represent them. At least for now, I think we can all take a breather that democracy won last night.

-Angela Valenzuela

Essential Politics: The recall isn’t just about California. It’s a preview of where 2022 might be heading

The shadow of former President Trump and far-right groups hangs over California’s recall election. Above, challenger Larry Elder, left, and Gov. Gavin Newsom. (Irfan Khan; Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) BY LAURA BLASEY  MULTIPLATFORM EDITOR, NEWSLETTERS  SEP. 8, 2021 6:30 AM PT

In less than a week, the final ballots will be cast in the recall election to unseat California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The results of the Republican-led effort — which culminates on Tuesday — has implications that reach across the country and into the 2022 midterm election. For months, Times staffers have closely covered the recall election, and their reporting reveals four themes that explain how we got here and what might be coming next year. The leading GOP candidate seems familiar The recall’s leading Republican candidate is popular in conservative media and hosts his own radio show. He has eschewed the establishment and is relying on a grass-roots support system. He’s made dismissive comments about women, may not have properly disclosed his finances and fueled skepticism about climate change and vaccines. Larry Elder certainly seems to be utilizing the Donald Trump playbook. The result is a broad coalition of support that includes new converts, evangelicals and former Trump supporters, Marisa Gerber writes. He’s not the only candidate doing so: California has a slew of pro-Trump recall candidates, Julia Wick reports. Across the country, Republican hopefuls are angling for Trump’s support base and seeking endorsements from Trump himself. As for how Elder feels about Trump? In 2019, he called Trump’s election “divine intervention,” but has since scaled back his praise, trying to appeal to both Trump supporters and more moderate Republicans, James Rainey writes. There could be danger in being seen as too moderate. Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, the most experienced Republican heading into the election, has an establishment past and what he admits are “vanilla” views, and he is struggling to break out of the pack, writes Laura J. Nelson. The recall is being fueled, in part, by Trump’s lies The epicenter of recall mania is Amador County in the Sierra foothills. About 1 in 5 registered voters signed recall petitions — the highest concentration in California. The Times’ Hailey Branson-Potts spoke to voters there, reporting that conservatives deeply believe Trump’s falsehood-filled campaign that he won the 2020 election. By and large, she writes, these voters refuse to cast their ballots by mail, believing Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations that mail-in voting leads to rampant voter fraud. If Newsom prevails, many said they won’t believe the results. Far-right groups and internet rhetoric played a role In January, a Times investigation by Anita Chabria and Paige St. John found that recall campaign leaders sought to capitalize on Republican disappointment and allied with radical and extreme elements to help collect signatures. Some early recall backers were linked to QAnon, the Proud Boys, far-right militias and other extremist groups that share support for Trump, online organizing tactics and distrust of elections. The recall effort soon picked up support from dissatisfied Republicans unaware that it was being driven by extremists, with organizers insisting the far-right groups don’t represent the values of the recall movement. But inflammatory rhetoric has continued to show up, especially in social media campaign ads. As Maura Dolan wrote last week, internet advertising has pushed falsehoods and capitalized on emotions in less extreme ways, heightening recall tensions. The recall has national implications As my colleague Evan Halper writes, California has served for decades as an incubator for ideas that go on to influence the rest of the country, from climate change to housing. Experience in California politics can also propel elected leaders onto the national stage — think Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Reagan. As Melanie Mason wrote last week, surviving a recall could offer Newsom a spotlight, as it did former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — who parlayed his survival into a presidential run. And, if you’ve been closely following our coverage, you know that many of the issues and talking points that colored 2020 have crept into the recall race — and they may very well shape the midterm elections next year. It’s no wonder then that national Democratic figures are voicing support for Newsom ahead of next week’s election day. As Noah Bierman wrote in this newsletter last week, Democrats are desperately working to maintain their slim leads in the House and Senate through the midterms. Maintaining the California governor’s seat is part of that strategy: the governor will have the power to fill the seat of Sen. Dianne Feinstein if she retires or falls ill. So far, polls show a growing majority of Californians oppose recalling Newsom, and the state is heavily Democratic, giving the governor an edge. Early returns on mail ballots show more than twice as many Democrats have voted than Republicans and that liberal areas have the highest rates of return, Mason and Seema Mehta report. But Democrats fear a low-turnout election could bolster Republican chances of taking control of the state. They are so nervous that Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning with Newsom in the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday. Next week, President Biden is expected travel to California to stump for Newsom. More on the recall election — On Google and YouTube, Newsom and Elder are aiming for two different Californias, write Rahul Mukherjee and Vanessa Martínez. — Vaccines, unemployment, housing, drought: Here’s where the top recall candidates stand on the issues. —From Mehta and Mason: As the recall charges into its final days, Democrats’ midsummer panic has given way to cautious confidence that Newsom’s outlook has brightened, aided by healthy turnout so far, a towering advantage in money and the emergence of an ideal foil: Elder. — The national cavalry has come to help Newsom. But the anti-recall effort is mostly a California fight, writes columnist Mark Z. Barabak. — As candidates crisscross California, faith communities have become a central place for proselytizing to potential voters, Faith E. Pinho writes. The role of religion on the campaign trail has been amplified in recent weeks by lingering anger over California’s COVID-19 restrictions. — A shaman, a rapper and a surgeon: Julia Wick has a rundown of the lesser-known names on your recall ballot. The view from Washington — When Joe Biden was running for president, he promised to close a squalid border camp in Mexico where thousands of migrants had been left to await the outcome of their immigration cases by the Trump administration. He followed through — and a worse one emerged under his watch, reports Molly Hennessy-Fiske. — From Tracy Wilkinson: As the Taliban prepares to announce a government in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is being forced to abruptly recalibrate its approach to a group long viewed in the U.S. as terrorists. — Also from Wilkinson: Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Tuesday that charter flights carrying U.S. citizens and Afghans to safety from northern Afghanistan were being held up by concerns over security and knowing who’s on board, not because of Taliban extortion. — The board of directors of Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights organization, has fired its president, saying he assisted former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration in responding to sexual harassment allegations that led to the governor’s resignation. The view from California — From Evan Halper: California is leading the world in confronting climate change. Yet the opaque carbon trading scheme that is a linchpin of the state’s climate efforts — California is leaning on it to meet as much as half of its greenhouse gas reductions — is under serious strain at home even as it is getting copied far beyond California. — California is preparing for a first-in-the-nation experiment to move California’s health insurance program for low-income and disabled people beyond traditional doctor visits and hospital stays into the realm of social services. Over the next five years, the state will plow nearly $6 billion in state and federal money into the plan. — Ten months after California voters rejected a state law eliminating cash bail for many offenses, Patrick McGreevy reports on a new fight brewing in the Legislature over an alternative plan that would slash the amount arrestees must pay to get out of jail. — Also from McGreevy: California law enforcement officers could be stripped of their license to carry a badge if they engage in serious misconduct, including excessive force, racial bias and dishonesty, under legislation approved Friday by the state Assembly. Sign up early for our California Politics newsletter, coming in August, to get the best of The Times’ state politics reporting, including full coverage of the recall election and the latest action in Sacramento. https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2021-09-08/essential-politics-recall-california-preview-where-elections-are-going-essential-politics

Advancing Racial Equity In Higher Education: Fireside Chat and Celebration

President Michele Siqueiros sits down with Governor Gavin Newsom, California’s higher education system leaders, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond for a historic discussion on the economic and social imperative of closing racial equity gaps in college access and success. Watch the discussion and virtual celebration to honor sixteen years of higher education advocacy by the Campaign for College Opportunity.

Who Will Teach Ethnic Studies in California? By Colleen Flaherty | November 24, 2020

Scheduled to go into effect this coming Fall, 2021, this is the same question that every other state will be asking as they seek to implement Ethnic Studies as a requirement for graduation from the university.  The devil is always in the details with policy.  

If it's implemented uniformly as a General Education, lower-division requirement, then community college transfer students might not get to take Ethnic Studies courses unless it's also offered at the community colleges.  This sounds like a good idea anyway, but will require resources in order for the community colleges to hire new professors to teach Ethnic Studies.  

As I see it, these are good "problems" to have. 

Thanks to Dr. Nora Comstock for sharing.

-Angela Valenzuela

#EthnicStudiesNow

Who Will Teach Ethnic Studies?

California State University will require students to take ethnic studies, but 

the faculty and system remain divided over how to put the new requirement 

into place.

By 

Colleen Flaherty |

November 24, 2020

Months after California State University’s new ethnic studies requirement was signed into law, the debate over it lingers. Instead of whether students should be required to take a class in ethnic studies, the system and the faculty now disagree over how the requirement will be adopted.

Ethnic studies advocates on the CSU faculty want students to complete the single-course requirement with trained ethnic studies professors, who generally teach within the system -- not at the community colleges from which more than one-third of Cal State undergraduates transfer. And because the curriculum is a primary domain of the faculty, system professors want leeway from campus to campus on how the requirement works.

The Cal State system, meanwhile, wants to make the new ethnic studies course a uniform, lower-division requirement that is part of the general education program. This means that transfer students will have to take ethnic studies before coming to the CSU. It also means community colleges will have to ramp up their ethnic studies instruction -- and probably their hiring -- to accommodate students who wish to transfer. And so the CSU ethnic studies faculty members who advocated for the new law, known as AB 1460, likely won’t ever engage with many transfer students.

This, they say, circumvents the spirit of the law, which was passed to help students across the system better understand the society in which they live.

From AB 1460: “It is the intent of the Legislature that students of the California State University acquire the knowledge and skills that will help them comprehend the diversity and social justice history of the United States and of the society in which they live to enable them to contribute to that society as responsible and constructive citizens.”

The law defines ethnic studies as Native American studies, African American studies, Asian American studies or Latinx studies. CSU campuses will have to have course offerings starting next year, so that all students graduating in 2024-25 can take at least one course.

Cal State faculty groups were hoping that the system’s Board of Trustees might listen to their concerns at a meeting last week. The systemwide faculty Council on Ethnic Studies’ views on the matter are well-known, and the system’s Academic Senate passed a resolution earlier this month advocating campus autonomy with respect to AB 1460’s adoption, including that it may be adopted as either a lower- or upper-division requirement.

The board was responsive to one long-standing faculty concern: that the required course be specific to ethnic studies, and not ethnic studies or social justice generally, as the board approved in an earlier policy iteration this summer.

On the lower-division, campus autonomy issue, however, the board accepted CSU’s position, said Melina Abdullah, a professor of pan-African studies at the system’s Los Angeles campus and a member of the Council on Ethnic Studies.

“This is an effort by the [system] chancellor’s office to push it down, and really, push it off, onto community colleges,” Abdullah said of the requirement. “They were the most vigorous and really the only opponent to AB 1460 in the first place, so it makes sense that they’d want to pass the weakest implementation plan possible.”

The CSU system has argued that a systemwide requirement needs a systemwide adoption framework.

“The biggest reason,” said Michael Uhlenkamp, a spokesperson for the chancellor’s office, “is to eliminate the possibility for any potential confusion for students and maintain consistency across the campuses. All incoming students would have a firm understanding of which courses to take, regardless of whether they are a first-year student at CSU Channel Islands or a transfer student to Sonoma State.”

Abdullah and others disagree that a campus-to-campus adoption plan would cause mass confusion, however, and argue that the system would never deign to tell professors in other fields how and when students should meet their requirements.

“Nobody would dispute that math faculty are best positioned to determine what math classes students should take, or biology faculty, or philosophy faculty,” she said. “And ethnic studies is the only discipline in which the vast majority of the faculty are people of color.”

Hollis Robbins, dean of arts and humanities at Sonoma State, said that "faculty trained in ethnic studies fields should be the key voices in implementing the requirement at the campus level." Sonoma State has long had a "robust" ethnic studies requirement of its own, fulfilled largely by courses in American multicultural studies, Chicano and Latino studies, and Native American studies, "and our faculty in these departments will play a critical role in the implementation process" for the new law.

Robbins added, "We have courses that may fulfill the requirement across the university, but ethnic studies faculty will be key to approving those classes."

Kenneth P. Monteiro, acting director of the César E. Chávez Institute at San Francisco State University’s College of Ethnic Studies and chair of the system’s Council on Ethnic Studies, said via email that the chancellor’s office “forced” on the system “the most administratively complex, expensive, intellectually unsound” requirement model. He also said that by making ethnic studies part of the general education curriculum instead of a free-standing requirement, pre-existing social science general education requirements -- including those that focus on diversity -- are likely to be weakened. This pits diversity “allies” against each other in a totally unnecessary way, he added.

“We are profoundly disappointed, because he began his tenure with great promise but leaves while placing a thorn in our side,” Monteiro said of CSU chancellor Tim White.

California Community Colleges had no comment on trustees’ vote, but an administrator previously told EdSource that the change would cost some $45 million, mostly for hiring new professors to teach ethnic studies.

Read more by 

Colleen Flaherty

Powerful statement on Ethnic Studies by Carlos Alcala, Chair, Chicano Latino Caucus, California Democratic Party

Powerful statement on Ethnic Studies by Carlos Alcala, Chair, Chicano Latino Caucus, California Democratic Party:

"Latinos and Blacks want Ethnic Studies to stem the tide of racial hatred that threatens our nation now.  If children are taught tolerance there may not be another EL Paso Walmart shooting incident or another murderous attack on an African American church service. These two groups are protected because they have endured a "stigma of opprobrium" due to skin color.  You cannot convert to Black or Brown skin. Skin color is an indelible characteristic. There is an urgency to the plight of minority communities."

Education is inescapably linked to consciousness and how one views the world. Ethnic Studies holds promise for a better world.

-Angela Valenzuela

#EthnicStudiesNow 

  By Carlos Alcala, Chair Chicano Latino Caucus, California Democratic Party

      In a completely unexpected action, the California Governor joined Arizona as one of the few states where a Governor has vetoed Chicano Studies, but we may be the only state where a Governor vetoed both Black Studies and Chicano Studies bills.  The California Department of Education had designed programs that focus on the American civil rights movements. 

Latinos and Blacks want Ethnic Studies to stem the tide of racial hatred that threatens our nation now.  If children are taught tolerance there may not be another EL Paso Walmart shooting incident or another murderous attack on an African American church service. These two groups are protected because they have endured a "stigma of opprobrium" due to skin color.  You cannot convert to Black or Brown skin. Skin color is an indelible characteristic. There is an urgency to the plight of minority communities.

     When Ethnic Studies finally passed, the Governor vetoed it to because it was not inclusive enough.  The Governor received pressure from other groups who felt the model curriculum was not inclusive enough. So when California finally passed Ethnic Studies, critics decided Ethnic Studies should not be taught because it is not inclusive enough.  Critics miss the point.  This is a de ja vous of "white lives matter."  Telling the country that Black Lives Matter is not an attack on white people.  It is an urgent call for justice.  "White Lives Matter" would make it more inclusive but it misses the point that injustice to People of Color is a huge problem.

     Even notoriously conservative Texas now has Ethnic Studies in the curriculum.

     All people do matter, as do all groups, but teaching Black Studies and Chicano Studies in the curriculum needs to happen now.  If need be expand it in the future, but understand that Latinos are over 50% of the school kids and need positive teaching now. 

    The Governor will send staff to the California Department of Education to convince them of the error of their ways.  How long will that take?

     We would be even more upset if the Governor had vetoed a meaningful Ethnic Studies bill.  As it is the California Assemblyman who sponsored AB 331, Assemblyman Jose Medina gutted the bill, then the Governor vetoed the remaining shell.      

     The Legislature needs to get its act together.  The country is in the throes of racial unrest fueled by racial hatred. Ethnic studies offers a path to combating the toxic racial malady that erodes our national fabric. There is little reason for California to be following the lead of Texas on Ethnic Studies.  Many of us took our elected officials support for Ethnic Studies as a no brainer, but we were wrong to do so. In the coming elections we will have to demand to know candidate's positions before we decide to support them.  Too much trust does not go a long way.  

     We have enormous faith in the ability of Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, Chair of the Appropriations Committee to repair the damage,  The Governor is out of step with the Latino and Black communities on this issue. It detracts from his wonderful accomplishments elsewhere.  

     Vote today, make your voice heard. Your Democracy needs you.    

Melissa M. Moreno, Ph.D.

Ethnic Studies Educator 

Cultural Exhibit Designer

Back to the drawing board on Ethnic Studies after California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill last week that would have required Ethnic Studies as a requirement for graduation from high school. It's clear that the bill fell prey to a number of interests that do not quite understand (or want to understand) its original intent.

Specifically, it sought to connect K-12 education to college-level fields of study—as opposed to satisfying a "diversity" requirement, per se.  As we all know (or should know), Ethnic Studies is historic, offered since the late 1960s and early 1970s.  It is an umbrella term for "African American Studies," "Mexican American/Chicana/o Studies,""Asian American Studies," and "Native American and Indigenous Studies," four separate courses.  If you're on the East Coast, in particular, "Puerto Rican/Boricua Studies" or "Latino Studies" is often taught there. 

This is in fact what was passed in 2018 by the State Board of Education in Texas, an elective high school Ethnic Studies curriculum that aligns to its four primary fields of study. Although these are currently elective courses, they, too, ultimately also need to be required for high school graduation in Texas.

Everyone student in the U.S. should benefit from the kinds of courses and curricula that provide a sorely-needed, research-based, racial justice perspective in order to prepare our youth with a deep, studied understanding of unequal power relationships in the complex, multicultural world that we all inhabit—and for which they must be prepared.  To this, I would add bilingualism and biliteracy as additional goals.

We can accomplish just such a vision.  However, this respect should begin with an alignment of that to which we actually teach in our university-level Ethnic Studies Centers and Departments. This connection is what helps make our Ethnic Studies programs at the K-12 level meaningful and strong.

-Angela Valenzuela

Gov. Newsom vetoes requirement for ethnic studies course in high school

He said fixes to proposed model curriculum for the course should be done first

Assemblyman Jose Medina

Gov. Gavin Newsom unexpectedly vetoed a bill Wednesday to mandate a course in ethnic studies as a high school graduation requirement, starting in 2029-30. He announced his decision on the final day for acting on bills passed in the legislative the session ending Aug. 31.

In his veto message on Assembly Bill 331, Newsom reiterated his support for ethnic studies, pointing out that he signed a similar bill last month adding an ethnic studies course as a graduation requirement for California State University. But he said continuing disagreements over a proposed model ethnic studies curriculum for high school should be resolved before imposing a high school mandate.

“Last year, I expressed that the initial draft of the model curriculum was insufficiently balanced and inclusive and needed to be substantially amended. In my opinion, the latest draft, which is currently out for review, still needs revision,” he wrote.

He said he is directing his staff to work with State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond to ensure the curriculum achieves “balance, fairness and is inclusive of all communities.”

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Sign-up below to receive breaking news alerts from EdSource by text message.The California Department of Education, under Thurmond’s direction, proposed the latest draft. After further revision and public comment, it will go to the state board, which under a 2016 law must approve the model curriculum by March. School districts in California already offer hundreds of ethnic studies courses as electives. Several districts, including Los Angeles, San Diego and Fresno, plan to require the course.

In a statement, the bill’s lead author, Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, called the veto “a failure to push back against the racial rhetoric and bullying of Donald Trump” and a “disservice” to students who had called for the course requirement. He vowed to introduce the bill for the third time next year and expressed hope that he would convince Newsom to sign it.

Medina said he was “somewhat surprised” by Newsom’s veto, since the governor’s staff hadn’t raised objections to the bill in late August when he negotiated a series of changes, including several suggested by the California Jewish Legislative Caucus. In his veto message, Newsom praised the amendment that would ensure that an ethnic studies curriculum will be free from “bias and discrimination.”

Jewish groups had objected that the original draft curriculum minimized anti-Semitism and sided with the Palestinians over Israel in a proposed lesson plan on Arab Americans. Others said its critique of America was unbalanced, with a perspective that sees only America’s shortcomings on race. The document was written primarily by ethnic studies experts, college professors and high school teachers from California.

Still unresolved is a broader disagreement over which groups ethnic studies should include. Thurmond agrees with legislators and ethnic studies advocates who want the course to concentrate on the four groups that have been the focus of ethnic studies in higher education since its inception in the late 1960s: African Americans, Chicanos and Latinos, Native Americans and Indigenous people, and Asian Americans.

Other ethnic groups, including Sikhs, Armenians and Jewish Americans, want the course to include more about their heritage and continuing struggles with prejudice. Earlier this month, Thurmond announced a new million-dollar “Education to End Hate” initiative that will include resources and training grants for teachers to teach tolerance for differences in race and religion and a roundtable with political and social justice leaders on how to create tolerant learning environments.

Rabbi Mayer May, executive director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, which will provide materials on confronting anti-Semitism, joined Thurmond at the announcement.

But this initiative doesn’t address the dispute over an ethnic studies curriculum.

Newsom’s message doesn’t say what a compromise would be, but his veto will add pressure to reach it. “In California, we don’t tolerate diversity. We celebrate it. That should be reflected in our high school curriculum,” he wrote. “I look forward to our model curriculum achieving these goals.”

AB 331 would require the completion of a one-semester ethnic studies course starting with the graduating class of 2029-30; districts would have to begin offering a course in the 2025-26 school year.

Medina said another year’s delay in passage of the bill should not affect that timeline.

In a statement Wednesday, the California Teachers Association expressed disappointment with the veto. “In the midst of the largest and most widespread movement for equality and equity our nation has seen since the Civil Rights era, the need for all students to learn about the diverse histories and perspectives of Black, Indigenous and people of color couldn’t be greater,” said CTA President E. Toby Boyd. He called for “an authentic ethnic studies curriculum that can be implemented with veracity and reliability.”

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John Fensterwald writes about education policy and its impact in California.