How California’s Ethnic Studies Curriculum Got Sucked Into the Culture Wars
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Top researcher calls such inclusive models the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of American education reform
As a middle schooler, early December was an agonizing time of year for civil rights activist Karen Korematsu. When the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack approached, she made excuses to avoid the school bus where students subjected her to racist bullying.
“Go home.”
“You don’t belong here.”
Korematsu, 70, said a teacher’s lesson about the December 7, 1941, bombing in Hawaii only added to students’ animosity toward Japanese Americans like herself. Rather than presenting “both sides of the narrative,” she said her teacher taught them that “the Japanese are very bad people” who “killed over 2,000 servicemen.”