c/o Office of the College of Ethnic Studies
César E. Chávez Institute
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue EP103
San Francisco, CA 94132

August 14. 2019
Dear Assemblymembers Medina and Weber and other interested parties:
Subject: What is and is NOT Ethnic Studies
First, let me convey my appreciation to both of you and the continued support of the California State
University (CSU) Council on Ethnic Studies for both AB331 and AB1460. We have been made aware
of discussions that seem to be confusing and conflating the discussion of Ethnic Studies, the disciplinary
area, and the study of ethnicity, race or other demographics by other disciplinary areas. I am attaching
the original letter from our council in support of AB1460 and am expanding here on what it means to be
Ethnic Studies and, probably more importantly what it means to NOT be Ethnic Studies. I will explain
in reverse order.
Ethnic Studies is NOT any disciplinary study of ethnicity or race. As my colleague Professor Craig
Stone from CSU Long Beach put it during deliberations for the CSU Chancellor’s Task Force on the
Advancement of Ethnic Studies, (paraphrasing) if that were the case, modern Ethnic Studies would not
have been created. Before 1968, many humanities, social science and science disciplines studied
ethnicity and race, but they just did so poorly and in a manner dangerous to people of color, the various
peoples where were considered non-White and were historically oppressed for being non-White in
America, African, Asian, Latino and Native Americans.
Ethnic Studies is the discipline that grew out of the, yes admittedly political, and academic context to
decenter White Studies, White Supremacy and the privileged White narrative of the American
experience. Ethnic Studies re-centered the studies of people of color, African/Black American, Asian
American, Latino/Raza and Native/Indigenous Americans to insure that the study of ethnicity and race
in relationship to these peoples were done centered from the perspective, questions, needs and
aspirations of the peoples being studied, in intentional counter narrative to that which centered the study
of people of color from the perspectives, needs, questions, and aspirations of White Supremacy or
Whiteness as some inherent norm for humanity. Ethnic Studies is, therefore, an explicit counternarrative
to decolonize the academic narratives, which would speak or act on people of color without our
permission and without our self-determined interest at the center of the studies. There are many other
disciplines and studies with long histories studying ethnicity or race as central or secondary to their
studies, but not with this disciplinary center. Thus, there are some studies that center or at least address
the topics of race or ethnicity, but they do not center the experiences, intellectual traditions, and
liberation struggles of people of color in America, where "people of color" is an idiomatic phrase
referring to the peoples historically and continuously excluded from and oppressed by the project of
Whiteness. We appreciate those other studies, but distinguish ourselves from them.

California State University (CSU) Campuses
Bakersfield • Channel Islands • Chico • Domínguez Hills • East Bay • Fresno • Fullerton • Humboldt • Long Beach
Los Angeles • Maritime Academy • Monterey Bay • Northridge • Pomona • Sacramento • San Bernardino • San Diego
San Francisco • San José • San Luís Obispo • San Marcos • Sonoma • Stanislaus

 For example, any studies of European ethnic groups or groups assimilated into or overlapping with
Whiteness are typically not within the scope of Ethnic Studies, except when centered in the experiences
of people of color who are doing critical or comparative studies examining those experiences in the
Ethnic Studies context. Therefore, the study of Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, or Polish ethnicities would
fit within traditional White or Euro-centered curricula, not modern Ethnic Studies.
Specifically, we have been told that some legislators are arguing that Jewish Studies is in Ethnic Studies.
Jewish Studies has over a century of tradition in the American Academy as either religious or
cultural/multicultural studies, but it has no academic tradition inside of Ethnic Studies at any point in the
50-year history of the field. This does not diminish the importance of Jewish Studies; to the contrary, it
simply respects its academic tradition. Jewish Studies for the most part was a project to understand the
assimilation of American Jews into American Whiteness. The portion that was not assimilationist into
Whiteness still did not focus on Jews of color, African/Black Jews, Asian Jews, etc., and definitely did
not re-center Jewish Studies as a people of color, decolonial project. As a practical datum point, when
the CSU Task Force on Advancing Ethnic Studies and polled the 23 Campuses for a listing of Ethnic
Studies departments, units, or programs, not a single campus registered Jewish Studies among their
Ethnic Studies offerings.
As an educator and scholar who allies strongly and regularly with Jewish Studies, has collaborated with
a K-12 Holocaust studies program, chaired the committee that hired the first endowed chair in Jewish
Studies, and was lead administrative support for San Francisco State’s nationally heralded report on
President's Task Force on Inter-group Relations: Initial Focus on the Effect of Middle East Issues on
Campus Life (a collaborative work that included scholars and community members from the Arab,
Jewish, and Muslim communities among others). I strongly support those who wish to advance Jewish
Studies, but not by compromising the academic integrity of either Ethnic Studies or Jewish Studies.
This argument is broader than Jewish Studies, but we are receiving specific questions about Jewish
Studies and therefore wanted to address this directly. Jewish Studies and other studies not rooted in
Ethnic Studies as defined above may be supported in their own and appropriate legislation, policy and
practice. They can call on us as allies to assist them, as we call on them to support us now, but we must
all resist having our academic integrity compromised by political expediencies, for the sake of all
legitimate academic studies.
AB331, AB1460 and the Ethnic Studies Curriculum are all on the right track, staying focused on their
core, Ethnic Studies. Other studies should be handled within their correct and well documented
traditions. I strongly encourage you and your colleagues to remain focused on this great work as a model
for how solid academic thinking and excellent legislation go hand in hand.
Sincerely,
Professor Kenneth P. Monteiro, (for identification purposes only)
Former Dean, College of Ethnic Studies
Acting Director, César E. Chávez Institute
Coordinator, CSU Council on Ethnic Studies
Member, CSU Chancellor’s Task Force on Advancing Ethnic Studies

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