Ethnic Studies

Fifty years after the first College of Ethnic Studies was established at San Francisco State University, California requires all students graduating from the California State University to complete an Ethnic Studies course. The successful passage of Assembly Bill 1460 followed years of tireless advocacy from CFA members and CSU students.

California will be the first state in the nation to require that a four-year public higher education system offer Ethnic Studies as a graduation requirement, making California a leader in learning.   Ethnic Studies is the interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity that focuses on the lives of people of color from their own perspective. It offers a comprehensive understanding of the unique experiences of Native American and Indigenous Peoples, Asian Americans, Black Americans and Latinx/Chicanx Americans in the United States, as well as an intersectional analysis among the different communities. 

and knowledgeable of different races, ethnicities, and perspectives (of what it means to live in America). Institutional racism and other “isms” continue to compromise the life possibilities for many.  CSU students, who will be the leaders in California, the nation, and the world, must be equipped with these diverse perspectives, histories, and epistemologies. 

CFA will continue to advocate for genuine Ethnic Studies to be taught to all students in California as America reckons with the debilitating economic, educational, and health hardships communities of color continue to suffer due to historical and structural racism.