EXCLUSIVE: Students asked to analyze 'white supremacy,' read 'antiracism' book in Calif. school district

OXNARD, Calif. (CITC) — Students in a California school district are expected to be able to analyze "white supremacy," sparking outrage with a parents' rights group.

The Oxnard Union High School District (Oxnard Union) requires students to take its ethnic studies course prior to graduating, according to documents obtained by advocacy group Parents Defending Education (PDE) and shared exclusively with Crisis in the Classroom (CITC). The course is designed to teach students where "the axes of racial and ethnic identity intersect" with gender, class and sexuality, as well as how to "be agents of change in their communities."

The curriculum's third unit focuses on "privilege," "oppression," "intergenerational trauma," and various systems, including politics, education and prisons. One of the goals of the unit is for students to "analyze the concept of white supremacy (including institutional racism, racial hierarchy, and oppression)."

Crisis in the Classroom (CITC) reached out to Oxnard Union to confirm which grade levels receive the curriculum and whether the district wrote the curriculum.

Students are also asked to read "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds. The book, which is described as an "exploration of racism and antiracism in America" on Kendi's website, has been removed from schools nationwide due to concerns it contains "selective storytelling."

A North Carolina school district voted to temporarily remove the book last month after parents claimed it taught American history "from a twisted and biased perspective."

Michele Exner, a senior advisor for PDE, told CITC that Oxnard Union's inclusion of "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" is "laughable."

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"This course has nothing to do with academics, but is intended to train children to be political activists," Exner told CITC. "He [Kendi] has been exposed as a charlatan who has made millions in selling divisiveness to America, including making money from school districts."

Kendi's Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University is currently under investigation for issues related to “culture and grant management practices." At least one former employee claims projects the center has received millions of dollars to finance have not come to fruition.

"It is just more proof this material is meant to indoctrinate children into buying into a radical worldview," Exner continued. "Families in the community should be outraged this is the kind of content they are trying to push on children."

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation in 2021 requiring ethnic studies courses be implemented in each school district statewide beginning with the class of 2030. Some districts, such as Oxnard Union, have elected to begin the requirement early. The Mountain View-Los Altos Unified High School District (Mountain View-Los Altos) currently mandates the course for ninth-graders.

In Mountain View-Los Altos's adaptation of the course, students are required to draft social media posts in support of social movements from a pre-determined list. The list features Black Lives Matter and "Immigrants Rights."

CITC reached out to Oxnard Union for comment, but did not immediately receive a response. This story will be updated if a response is received.