ABSTRACT
As more and more institutions begin to grapple with various aspects of ethnic diversity in the coming years, it is important to understand why current efforts at enlarging the curriculum have generated such heated exchanges between supporters and opponents of the proposed reforms. Ideally, for ethnic studies courses that enroll a large number of non-minority students to succeed in their purpose, they must help students of color to arrive at the same conceptual clarity about the history, contemporary manifestation, and meaning of racial inequality that all ethnic studies courses aim to achieve. Second, they must help white students to come to terms with the fact that they may unwittingly be what Kenneth Clark has called "accessories to profound injustice". Third, they must provide all students with an arena in which to explore a new vision - a world where interdependent groups share a common destiny. We should recognize that courses that fulfill an ethnic studies requirement cannot eradicate racism.
