<p>My school offers Russian, Chinese, etc. for native speakers who want to improve their vocabulary and learn to read and write. The reason such courses don’t exist in Spanish, for example, is that you need to be fluent in English to attend Yale, and English and Spanish use the (basically) same alphabet. So it’s pretty reasonable to assume that someone who is a native Spanish speaker and attends Yale will already read and write, and thus take the same placement tests as everyone else and place into higher level classes.</p>
<p>Native Chinese and Russian speakers, on the other hand, have to deal with very different alphabets. Many who grew up speaking the languages never learned how to read/write, and thus are in a bit of a pickle regarding classes – it’s not fair to be in lower-level classes with kids who are learning to speak and understand as well as read and write, but it’s also not fair to force them into higher level classes when they’re still learning the alphabet! So, they offer “heritage” classes so that kids who can already SPEAK can learn to read/write the language. It’s not racism, it’s just an answer to the problem posed by kids who can speak but not read a language.</p>