Ethnic Studies: Born in the Bay from History's Biggest Student Strike

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2020

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Listener Michael Viray wrote in to Bay Curious asking to learn more about the origin story behind ethnic studies: “I’ve heard from one of my professors of ethnic studies at UC Davis that there was actually a revolution in the Bay Area for an ethnic studies field. Is this true? And how did it happen?” Today on Bay Curious, we’re revisiting the longest student strike in U.S. history. We'll learn about the five-month standoff between students and administrators at San Francisco State, that ultimately led to the first College of Ethnic Studies in the nation. Additional Reading: How the Longest Student Strike in U.S. History Created Ethnic Studies Sign up for the Bay Curious newsletter Reported by Asal Ehsanipour. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz and Rob Speight. Additional support from Erika Aguilar, Jessica Placzek, Kyana Moghadam, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho, Carly Severn, Bianca Hernandez, Ethan Lindsey, Vinnee Tong and Michelle Wiley.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED.
0:02.0	Hey everyone, this is Bay Curious, and I'm Olivia Allen Price.
0:08.0	I've been doing a lot of reflecting recently about times in my life when racism was on display and I was either too young or too
0:17.2	naive or too privileged to see it.
0:21.1	And one thing that I'm questioning is my entire history education, K through 12.
0:26.8	For the most part, I was taught these whitewashed simplistic fables, and I do mean fables. You know Christopher Columbus was this bold risk
0:35.9	taker. Native Americans and pilgrims were friends who sat down to a tasty feast.
0:40.6	The civil rights movement ended racism in America. After that, everything was fine.
0:46.6	Looking back now, it's embarrassing. I don't even really want to admit it here on the podcast.
0:52.0	But I know it's been a revelation that some of you have had too. And it's
0:55.3	one today's question-asker had years ago.
0:58.0	Filipino American history, Asian American history, like Latin X American history.
1:03.4	It's not being taught in classrooms.
1:05.7	Like, I kind of didn't know my own history.
1:08.6	This is Michael Veri.
1:10.0	I'm 23 years old and I currently live in Mountain View and I'm a recent graduate of UC Davis.
1:15.3	In college, Michael took action to fix this history education he got.
1:19.5	He minored in Asian American Studies.
1:22.1	And one day a professor mentioned something
1:24.1	that he's been wondering about ever since.
1:26.8	That there was actually a revolution in the Bay Area
1:29.3	for an ethnic studies field.
	...

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