SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) Ethnic studies programs have come about from students of color demanding them. On November 6, 1968, a coalition of student groups at San Francisco State University demanded that the university institute an ethnic studies program.
(b) Ethnic studies are an interdisciplinary and comparative study of race and ethnicity with special focus on four historically defined racialized core groups: Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina and Latino Americans.
(c) Studies have found that both students of color and white students benefit academically as well as socially from taking ethnic studies courses. Ethnic studies courses play an important role in building an inclusive multicultural democracy.
(d) A report of the California State University Task Force on the Advancement of Ethnic Studies, commissioned by the Chancellor’s office, recommended that ethnic studies become a general education requirement throughout the California State University system.