By Shirl Buss

I am acutely interested in the ongoing debates about ethnic studies unfolding across the nation, as well as here in Marin County.

From my own experience, I feel students of all ages need to be exposed to history, voices and perspectives about people different from themselves. Education is a transformative experience that can enable all of us to have respectful, constructive discussions on difficult subjects while building our capacity for critical thinking.

I grew up in San Diego. I lived in an all-White neighborhood and went to all-White schools. As a child, I had absolutely no contact with — or awareness of — people of different races or ethnicities. I was completely oblivious to racism and racial issues.

During my formative years in the 1950s and early 1960s, many atrocities were being committed throughout the country. In Alabama, Bull Connor’s people unleashed vicious dogs and firehoses on Black children of my age. Four Black girls were killed when a Ku Klux Klan bombed their church in Birmingham. Black students sat down at a “Whites only” lunch counter, sparking a national sit-in movement. In my profoundly insular White world, I was blithely unaware of the virulent, open racism of the times. Not one word was mentioned about any of this at home or in school.

In high school in the mid 1960s, I didn’t know the Civil Rights Act was enacted into law, or that 600 civil rights activists marching across the Pettus Bridge in Selma were brutally attacked by state troopers. Even though these dramatic events were in the news and touched the entire country, my parents and teachers did not discuss the many events roiling our country. People of color were distant “others,” whose lives I felt were unrelated to me in any way.

In 1967, at age 17, I enrolled at the University of California at Los Angeles. Responding to the massive cultural revolution sweeping the country, the university was offering “relevant” courses. My history and literature professors introduced me to James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison and more. Their voices had a profound effect upon me. I was exposed to new ideas and people and was confronted with complex social, moral and political issues. I was challenged to grow and change. These experiences, and many more, launched me on a transformative journey that took me from the White suburbs of San Diego into the world at large.

Later as a burgeoning feminist, the anti-racist paradigms I studied as an undergraduate gave me a lens through which to understand my own experience as a woman. My friends and I learned from the writings of Black, Latina and Asian women such as Angela Davis, Cherie Moraga and Grace Lee Boggs.

These powerful authors challenged us to prioritize anti-racism along with our quest to eradicate sexism. They urged us to diversify our mostly White organizations and to be authentic allies to people of color.

I was inspired to think more deeply about historic injustices and encouraged to hone the tools needed to make positive changes in myself and in the world.

Here, in our relatively homogenous Marin communities, I hope young people get more — not fewer — opportunities to learn about race, racism and all cultures. Many Black, Latino and Asian intellectuals and artists are writing books, producing plays and creating art illuminating their lived experiences and offering their expertise.

Students deserve to be exposed to these voices to cultivate their awareness and empathy and to build their stamina for debate and discourse. Integrating multicultural voices and perspectives into the fabric of our educational settings can inspire young people, and all of us, to actively engage in the quest for social justice and equity.

I hope students of all ages have more opportunities than I did to learn, grow and be inspired by people of all cultures. Young people are not fragile. They have the capacity to have their world enlarged. They can handle learning about the depth and complexity of our country’s history. I have found that there is nothing to fear. There are only benefits to be accrued, not only for each of us as individuals, but more important, for all of us as a society.

Shirl Buss, of San Rafael, is a teaching architect with Youth in Arts and Y-PLAN.