Parents and observers who believe CRT (critical race theory) has been routed from education throughout the land should think again. While CRT has been banned in many states and school districts, as well as outlawed by Executive Order at the federal level since last January, it has in many areas been absorbed by a more benign-sounding yet sinister approach known as “ethnic studies.”

But ethnic studies curricula are nothing new. As Stanley Kurtz, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC), articulated so well in his August 2024 article that was reprinted in Education Reporter, ethnic studies “traces its origins to the 1968 student strike at San Francisco State College” in California. That strike, Kurtz explained, “ushered in the first Black Studies department, along with the associated founding of the Third World Liberation Front, which demanded and got the first college programs in Ethnic Studies (Chicano Studies, and the like).”

When Kurtz wrote his article, he pointed not to California but to Minnesota as having “the most radical education standards in the country.” He laid the lion’s share of the blame for that on Governor Tim Walz, who at the time was running for vice president alongside presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.

Since then, Walz has continued to support radical left education in his state. Ethnic studies such as can be found in schools in Minnesota and California are, according to Kurtz, “race-based neo-Marxism.” He wrote: “Essentially, ethnic studies is a kind of anti-civics in which students are taught to reject and replace America’s system of government.”

Ethnic studies in Minneapolis

The organization, Defending Education, recently described the latest Minneapolis Public Schools’ (MPS) ethnic studies classes featuring content which teaches students “that capitalism and Western culture are exploitative and lead to slavery, colonialism, genocide, and white supremacy.” Beginning this year, students are required to take at least one of these courses, all of which force them to “examine the concept of race as an organizing construct in US society.”

Defending Education believes the example set by MPS could have statewide implications as an ethnic studies template for other districts in the state. The MPS classes vary among the district’s schools, and are directed at students from virtually every ethnic group except white students of European descent. For example, the list of courses includes:

• African American Studies
• Asian American Studies
• Chicanx/Latinx Studies
• American Indian Studies
• Hmong Studies (Chinese; primarily PRC)
• Race and Identity Studies
• Somali Studies
• Intro to Ethnic Studies, for middle school

The course description for African American History/Culture promises to “explore why African Americans have occupied an oppressed position in the US and how they have resisted this oppression to create social change.” Certain of the African-American ethnic studies courses are open only to black students.

The Chicanx/Latinx Studies course for high school students covers “why Chicanxs/Latinxs have occupied an oppressed position in the US and how they have resisted and created movements for social change and democracy.”

The Intro to Ethnic Studies Education and Multicultural Education is a year-long barrage of propaganda whereby “students can receive a total of 6 college credits if they meet requirements from Minneapolis College.” This course is presented as “an anti-racist tool” and purports to help students “identify the kinds of structural inequalities that are part of K-12 institutions and their development of curriculum, as well as understand the concept of multidimensional identities/intersectionalities.” In other words, straight white students will be placed on a guilt trip and emotionally assaulted for their presumed white supremacy, racism, and bigotry.

This intro course has a prerequisite called “Intro to Urban Education” which, according to Defending Education, lists themes like “‘Race, Identity & School Experiences,’ ‘Indigenous Education,’ ‘Black Lives Matter at School,’ ‘Language Justice,’ and ‘Decolonizing Education.’”

Not surprisingly, ethnic studies also includes “Gender & Sexuality Studies” which evidently qualify as “ethnic” studies because well, the more victims the merrier. One such course description reads in part:

• This course encourages students of all identities to deepen their understanding of how intersectionality in their own life [sic], and uncovers the history of unequal systems of power and privilege and how they have been used to silence members of the queer community. Students will also learn about resilience, and how the LGBTQIA+ community has embraced resistance as a way to transform the communities in which they live.

These politically charged courses replace genuine learning and understanding of other cultures with an agenda that pits students against each other and encourages them to become Marxist activists.

The Free Beacon observed that “the Hmong studies course provides perhaps the best window into the Minneapolis school system’s approach to ethnic studies classes. In one section [called] ‘Power Struggles and Resistance,’ the class centers on the ‘Pillars of White Supremacy,’ complete with a diagram equating capitalism with slavery and on par with war and genocide.”

Required readings are part of the coursework and feature authors including Ibram X. Kendi, Mahmoud El-Kati, Ronald Takaki, along with Howard Zinn’s discredited A People’s History of the United States.

Many of the suggested texts and supplemental materials are related to specific courses, such as An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, and Mahmoud El-Kati’s The Myth of Race, the Reality of Racism. Another suggested resource is the article “Five Faces of Oppression, which cites Karl Marx to argue that ‘[e]xploitation uses capitalism to oppress.’”

‘White Supremacy’ defined

The MPS Ethnic Studies curriculum defines “White Supremacy” as “a political, economic, cultural, and ideological system that makes white superiority (dominance) a normal and natural part of society.” Accompanying this definition is a quote from the black activist Stokely Carmichael, who later associated himself with the Black Panthers under his new name Kwame Ture:

• ...Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power. Racism gets its power from capitalism. Thus, if you’re anti-racist, whether you know it or not, you must be anti-capitalist. The power for racism, the power for sexism, comes from capitalism, not an attitude.

As committed leftists hammer away at the American way of life, which is the envy of the world, is it any wonder many of today’s schoolchildren are depressed, with increasing numbers requiring “mental health interventions”? While the topic of mental health screenings and treatment in public schools opens another troubling can of worms (see Education Reporter August 2025, May 2024, etc.), one can easily imagine that some kids genuinely need help, given their relentless exposure to depressing and demeaning curricula that offer no academic value whatsoever.

Defending Education’s senior director of strategic initiatives, Paul Runko, warns that “the Minneapolis ethnic studies curricula and requirements represent a growing trend across the country and match those found in Milwaukee, Denver, Boston, and California.” He adds that parents should be aware of ethnic studies courses because if they are not yet in their children’s schools, they will be.

Runko told The Free Beacon: “Schools should unite children around shared values and academic excellence, not divide students by race and perceived oppression status.” This is especially true given the continually poor performance of students in reading and math as revealed by the most recent NAEP scores. (See Education Reporter, February 2025.) Many parents and observers believe it is precisely because of indoctrination such as described above that real academics have taken a backseat.

While the MPS is allegedly revamping its ethnic studies to comply with state standards established in 2021, the district’s Ethnic Studies Department pledges to provide:

• Explicit exploration of identity, intersectionality, and multiplicity.
• Reframing curriculum to be centered around counter-narratives of communities of color.
• Structural analysis of racism and colonialism that works towards dismantling oppression.
• Interdisciplinary learning that leads to action; co-constructed with students.

MPS further claims its courses “deeply examine the concept of race as an organizing construct in US society, and students are provided opportunities to examine their own identity.” The message could not be clearer as to the intent of this “education.” Parents, beware!

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