SAN JOSE, CALIF.—Despite its value to a community like the one at Silver Creek, the Ethnic Studies course has not been available for students for the past three years

Written in a paper by Amanda Morrison, a professor at Sonoma State University, Ethnic Studies is a class that began gaining prevalence in the Bay Area consecutively with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. Considering that the course focuses heavily on acknowledging the struggles that various marginalized groups in America have had to face economically, socially, culturally and politically, this is not surprising to know. Activists at that time fought for equal rights and treatment in all areas of life and that included education as well.  

More often than not, the curriculum that schools have and teach their students does not always give the whole story of a situation, especially in subjects like history. While this issue has been reduced in severity in recent years, it still remains present in modern times. 

To “decolonize” the lessons taught in school is a main goal that ethnic studies has. What that means is to stray from what is considered the “master narrative,” which is what has been taught since the beginning of the United States education system. 

The story of the Pilgrims peacefully living alongside and being helped by the Native Americans, that is a master narrative. Nowadays it is not taught that way, at least not here, and that is because the truth has begun to be favored and the master narrative has started to be rejected. Choosing to follow that version of history leads to ignorance and does not challenge a student to truly think as much as the truth makes them. This class pushes students to think much more critically about the world around them by showing the true past of the United States.

At Silver Creek, the class was taught by Cesar Juarez Ruiz from 2021 to 2022. He also taught the course from 2015 to 2020 at DCP El Primero High School. Juarez was initially introduced and enamored with the idea of a class like this one when he took a Mexican-American history class at Evergreen Valley Community College. He recalls being engaged with the work in a way he had never been with a class before. Consequently, he also felt more empowered after taking the course. 

“We gotta take this knowledge to the high school level,” he recounts telling his professor at the time. That goal was what motivated him to become a teacher in the first place and one he accomplished at both Silver Creek and the previous school he worked at.

However, at Silver Creek, the course has not been taught for three years straight now as Juarez has only been able to teach it for two years at the school. As it stands, ethnic studies is an elective and it is for that reason that the class has not been offered. The interest in the class, while not zero, is not high enough for the class to be held. “If students don’t sign up, they don’t offer the class,” Juarez says.

The lack of interest can be due to the incorporation of ideals from ethnic studies into regular classes which is what Juarez has done for his United States History class. He also places the blame on his own lack of promotion or attempts at recruiting more students to take the class in recent years.

Whatever the reason may be for the low intrigue, it doesn’t negate that the interest should be much higher. In a community such as the one at Silver Creek, home to various students who are Latin, Asian, Black, Indigenous or of other ethnic backgrounds and other historically disempowered groups, like women and the LGBTQ+, Ethnic Studies is a valuable course. 

Juarez describes the class as giving a voice to those who have for the longest time been unheard. He believes that “Only by hearing their voice and taking their concerns into consideration, we’re going to have a better country.”