In January, the Palo Alto school board met to discuss requiring high schoolers to take courses covering the displacement of Native Americans and the Black Panthers鈥 role in the Civil Rights Movement. For one school board member, the day ended with death threats.
Teaching ethnic studies鈥攃ourses about different cultures and historically marginalized groups鈥攚ould not appear a likely source of controversy in the deep-blue, immigrant-heavy, Silicon Valley city. But years of tension boiled over on a brisk winter night, over how the curriculum was released and the way oppression would be taught. In a school district where Asian students represent 40 percent of enrollees, some immigrants feel that the courses define power and privilege in a way that undermines the accomplishments of ethnic minorities.
鈥淎sian Americans, many of whom came here with nothing and worked their way up from nothing鈥攖hey see this course that labels us as privileged and powerful and perpetuating systemic oppression for having the audacity to build a good life,鈥 said Karthi Gottipati, a student at Palo Alto High School who served as the student board representative last year.
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