Letter to the Editor: Julia Lutch

Letter to the editor,

One hears that the new ethnic studies curriculum specifies that Jews are a privileged white racial group, and one model suggests that students “will write a paper detailing certain events in American history that have led to Jewish and Irish Americans gaining racial privilege.”

Irish privilege? What is that, specifically?

What is Jewish privilege? Fighting against university admission quotas? Having to build hospitals so Jewish doctors would be allowed to train and practice? Fighting real estate restrictive covenants? Why not have ethnic studies students write a paper detailing these issues?

Perhaps referencing Asian Americans as “privileged” because of their great success would have elicited too much pushback from this large group, so the Irish were chosen as a safe substitute.

How about Nigerian privilege, since the success rate for this group of immigrants is “disproportionately” high. But wait, as blacks, aren’t they victims of “systematic racism”? Why did they seek to immigrant [immigrate] to a country Rep. Ilhan Omar says is characterized by “centuries of racial neglect and oppression”?
The ethnic studies curriculum will have no actual oversight, no “guardrails,” because there will be no one in the classroom monitoring to determine if some teachers push for political advocacy and activism that will subvert the educational mission of schools.

Regarding COVID-19, one constantly hears “We are all in this together,” but apparently this is not seen as applying to the future of this country. E Pluribus Unum, not resentment-fueled racial balkanization, is the only way forward for our country.

Julia Lutch, Davis, Calif.