The issue of ethnic studies has long stirred controversy, especially in the Bay Area, where debates over how it’s taught have become a political battleground. That fight came to a head in the Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD), after a post-Oct. 7, lesson on the Israel-Palestine conflict ignited outrage among Jewish parents.

In November 2023, parents accused the lesson, delivered in ethnic-studies classes, as biased and antisemitic. The backlash reached a boiling point at a January 2024 school board meeting. Just months later, filmmaker Eli Steele—the son of civil-rights scholar Shelby Steele—released “Killing America,” a short documentary capturing the turmoil at SUHSD.

Steele’s film delves into the district’s ethnic-studies program, rising antisemitism in Bay Area schools and S

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