Asian Pacific American Law Journal

In recent years, activists have campaigned across the country for schools to
incorporate ethnic studies into their curricula. For example, in 2021, California Governor
Gavin Newsom signed a new law mandating an ethnic studies graduation requirement for
all high school students, starting with the class of 2030. While this movement has greatly
benefited students by exposing them to multicultural perspectives, misconceptions, such as
the model minority stereotype often assigned to Asian Americans, still pervade school
curricula. The stereotype portrays Asian Americans as having more of a hard-working
mentality and a propensity for achieving socioeconomic success, compared to other ethnic
groups. This is especially important in a state like California, which is home to nearly a
third of the country’s Asian population and twenty-one Asian ethnic groups. School
curriculum standards must move away from an essentialist point of view, which assumes
that Asian Americans have a uniform experience, and explore the intersectional oppressions
that impact the Asian American community. For example, Asian American students in Berkeley High School only learned about Chinese and Japanese culture and never discussed
Southeast Asian history, such as the wartime conflict in Laos. Schools should also recruit
and support Asian American educators, as these teachers’ cultural knowledge and racialized
experiences will bring the revised curriculum to life. Changes to California’s curriculum
can serve as a model for the rest of the nation at a time when the model minority myth is
manipulated by legislators to suggest that Asian Americans have overcome racism to
achieve socioeconomic success and fuel the anti-critical race theory movement, that
suppresses learning about racial oppression in schools altogether.