Jonathan Butcher, Mike Gonzalez
State lawmakers and education officials should replace ethnic studies as a subject in public K–12 classes and state universities with history and civics instruction focused on historical facts, lessons on citizenship, the mechanics of government, and rights under law. Ethnic studies does not include these crucial issue areas, nor is ethnic studies a benign discipline that seeks to bring Americans together. The subject is not intended to make Americans understand each other better nor equip students to be participating members of society when they graduate. Rather, ethnic studies is a radical field based on Marxist ideas that teaches students to prioritize their racial, ethnic, sexual, or “gender” identities (known as identity politics) over a shared national allegiance and national identity. One need only look at the bill mandating that ethnic studies be embedded into academic standards, which Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D), Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election, signed into law in 2023, one of the most radical in the nation, discussed below.
Americans need not agree on every policy issue, and elections give Americans the chance to exercise their right to select different candidates for office. Yet Americans should agree that their nation fundamentally respects individual rights and appreciates the sacrifice of those who defended this nation over the years to protect the freedoms that all Americans enjoy today. Ethnic studies does not advance these basic ideas, but, instead, it militates against them. Ethnic studies is a “critical” field, which means that ethnic studies focuses on societal conceptual superstructures and how to undermine them through critique. It analyzes power imbalances and seeks political changes. These are all Marxist notions used to deconstruct American society. Ethnic studies advocates designed their content to “decolonize” social studies and “area studies” (a subfield of study within social studies), in particular. » Read More
https://www.heritage.org/education/report/hey-hey-ho-ho-ethnic-studies-have-got-go