I want to comment on the ethnic studies portion of this bill.

I have met absolutely brilliant people from all backgrounds and both genders. I have written here many times on how IQ tests are very questionable measures and that any sort of racial or gender based profiling done with them is fraught with error. I have pointed out that the IQ test itself questionable since it is not at all clear what it is measuring and has produced many dubious results. The example I use is that Richard Feynman only scored a 132 and that there are hundreds of thousands of people who have scored higher than that, yet there was only one Feynman. The idea that comic book guy is somehow smarter than the greatest physicist of his generation - easily the same rank as Einstein- is ludicrous.

So if the test is flawed and there is no real basis for ethnic or gender based arguments as to why some are smarter than others, we can start to look at environmental factors. Any teacher will tell you that if a student comes from parents who value education and push kids to learn, the student will do better. Those parents are part of a culture. This is my point about the importance of ethnic studies. If you have great role models to live up to, you have a culture of success.

It is not that Asians or Jews are smarter than others. It is that those cultures tend to force their kids to study and would rather have straight A children than captains of the football team. They also have a proud heritage of this that allows them to not feel second best in a classroom. They make no apologies for living up to their role models. It is not that men are smarter than women. It is that women in America are still not expected to be as smart as men - even though that is (thankfully) getting better. As more and more women become role models, more and more girls will decide that they can do it too.

So how do you fix this and have every group in America coming from a level playing field such that everyone achieves their full potential? You need to give those who feel excluded, pride in themselves and role models to follow. That is one of the main benefits of ethnic studies courses. It cuts two ways, the kid from another group learns commonalities and respect for others and the ethnic kid learns respect for himself or herself.

If someone is a white supremacist or even just the average white guy who will swear they are not racist,, such a thing can be deeply threatening. He doesn’t want to hear that there really are great Hispanics and Black people and Women. He wants to feel secure in his own perceived status and silence such talk. The threat of this is also two fold. It teaches kids from those groups to accept that perceived status of themselves for themselves. Of course the majority kids then have to learn those lessons of respect elsewhere as well.

Any move to destroy ethnic studies is an inherently racist move designed to salve the fears of the non-accomplished white person at the expense of others having the role models they need to succeed. And I said non-accomplished white person pointedly. White folks who are educated and self secure, feel no threat from a Latino or a Black person who is proud of who he is.