Should Rhode Island high schools be required to offer an Ethnic Studies course? State lawmakers are considering a bill that would do just that.
Some supporters say it’s a crucial step at a time when the Trump administration is targeting curriculum that the president has described as “discriminatory equity ideology.” That can include teaching about Indigenous peoples, Black Americans, Latin Americans, and other histories that may not be included in the standard curriculum.
The Public’s Radio Morning Host Luis Hernandez spoke with two supporters of the legislation: Belinda Hu, coordinator for the education group OurSchoolsPVD; and Marcel Anderson, an 11th grader at the Met High School in Providence and a member of the Youth Leaders Cohort at OurSchoolsPVD.
Interview Highlights
On what an Ethnic Studies course can add to the curriculum
Belinda Hu: We see Ethnic Studies as crucial to understanding how we got to where we are today, understanding the truth behind U.S. history, understanding the communities who have been here since the start of this country and since before.
(An Ethnic Studies course can illuminate) What our experiences as people of color and as parts of communities of color — why they are the way they are, how to make sense of the oppression that we experienced. But also learning about the resistance that these communities have been building throughout the centuries and are still very much fighting for today.
Marcel Anderson: To have Ethnic Studies as a graduation requirement would mean that Rhode Island students would get to see and relate to our peers on a much deeper level and a much more affirmative level, peer-to-peer. Ethnic Studies just gives us the perspective to be able to really further appreciate the robust identities and cultures that make Rhode Island what it is today.
On top of that, I think it’s very real that for a lot of students, they want to be able to see themselves in the classroom. And not having Ethnic Studies in some way, shape, or form may say that it is a privilege to learn about your heritage and your culture, and it’s not a right. And it’s just so validating to be able to see who you are and to learn more about you and to have other students learn about who you are in the classroom.
On what the legislation filed at the Statehouse would do
Hu: This legislation would require a year-long course in Ethnic Studies offered in every high school in Rhode Island.
It would create a high school graduation requirement for every student in Rhode Island to take this class before they graduate high school, starting with the class of 2030. Also, there would be a student-led council on Ethnic Studies that would help develop the course — oversee the implementation.
On concerns that pressing for an Ethnic Studies could have negative consequences from the Trump administration
Hu: Yeah, I think that’s a conversation that we’ve started having. We’re still learning a lot about what the landscape looks like right now, and I think one thing that has been grounding for me is knowing that this fight has always been hard. The fight for Ethnic Studies has never been an easy one. It’s a very long one. It comes out of student organizing on college campuses in 1967, 1968. The conditions then also very hard. Anyone doing this kind of work was targeted. And so I think there’s a lot that we can learn from the history of these fights.
On a student’s view of Ethnic Studies
Anderson: To both everyone listening and also to lawmakers, I want to stress how much students want this to happen and the youth of Rhode Island want this to happen. As this has been ramping up, I’ve been constantly having conversations with my friends from South Kingstown, Narragansett, Westerly, Providence, and Cranston. So this is not like an inner-city thing. This isn’t something that just a few people want to have happen. I’ve had my friends, my homies, my homies of homies, who have all been in support and there’s just so much youth voice and so many people, so many youth, who want to learn about this.
