1.1: Ethnic Studies is Home 

Reflection Summary: Ethnic Studies Is Home

The reading “Ethnic Studies Is Home” explains why Ethnic Studies is important and meaningful for students, teachers, and communities. It shows that Ethnic Studies is not just another subject. It is a space where students feel seen, heard, and valued. The article also explains why Ethnic Studies has faced criticism and resistance for many years, even though it has helped many students succeed.

One important idea in the reading is that many students do not really know what Ethnic Studies is. Some people think it is a new subject, but it has existed for over fifty years. Others think it is not serious or useful. Some critics even say Ethnic Studies spreads hate or is anti-white. The authors explain that these ideas are wrong. They come from fear, ignorance, and racism. These attacks are not based on real experiences in Ethnic Studies classrooms.

The article explains that Ethnic Studies teaches students about systems of oppression. These systems include white supremacy, settler colonialism, racial capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. Learning about these systems helps students understand why inequality exists. It also helps students understand their own experiences. For many students, this knowledge is empowering. It helps them realize that their struggles are not personal failures. Instead, they are connected to larger social structures.

Another key point in the reading is that Ethnic Studies has had a positive impact on students. Research shows that Ethnic Studies improves attendance, graduation rates, and academic success. These benefits are not limited to Ethnic Studies classes. Students often do better in their other classes too. This shows that Ethnic Studies supports overall student success, not just learning about race or culture.

The reading also explains why Ethnic Studies became a required course in California. Laws like AB 1460 and AB 101 were passed after years of organizing by students and educators. These people worked very hard. Many of them had full-time jobs, part-time jobs, families, and other responsibilities. Even with these challenges, they continued to fight for Ethnic Studies. Their work paid off when the state recognized Ethnic Studies as a valuable and necessary discipline.

I found it powerful that the article describes Ethnic Studies as a “home.” This word is important. A home is a place where people feel safe and accepted. Many students do not feel this way in other classes or institutions. In Ethnic Studies classrooms, students can talk about their real lives. They can share experiences of racism, colorism, immigration, poverty, and mental health. They are not judged or silenced.

The article gives examples of how Ethnic Studies classrooms become spaces of healing. Students can talk about being undocumented. They can talk about being mixed race. They can talk about abuse or mental health struggles. These conversations help students process pain they may have carried for a long time. This makes Ethnic Studies more than academic. It is emotional and personal.

I also learned that Ethnic Studies helps students connect the personal with the political. This means students learn how their individual experiences are connected to history and power. For example, students may learn that racially segregated neighborhoods were created on purpose. They may learn that police surveillance is not random. This knowledge helps students understand their lives in a new way. It can be painful, but it can also be freeing.

The reading explains that Ethnic Studies has always existed in a place of struggle. From the beginning, it faced resistance. This resistance continues today. The authors argue that this is because Ethnic Studies challenges the status quo. It challenges systems that benefit certain groups while harming others. People who benefit from these systems may feel threatened by Ethnic Studies. That is why they try to attack it.

What stood out to me is how the authors describe love, joy, and discovery in Ethnic Studies. This is different from how critics describe the discipline. Instead of hate, the authors describe empowerment. Instead of division, they describe belonging. This contrast shows how misinformation shapes public opinion. People who criticize Ethnic Studies often have never taken a class themselves.

I also appreciated how the article centers the voices of teachers and students. The authors are not distant observers. They are part of the discipline. They speak from lived experience. This makes the reading feel honest and passionate. It reminds me that education is not neutral. What we teach and how we teach matters.

For me, this reading helped me understand why Ethnic Studies is required. It is not about forcing ideas on students. It is about giving students tools to understand the world. It is about helping students see themselves in the curriculum. When students see their histories and identities reflected, they feel like they belong in school.

I also think Ethnic Studies is important for students who do not come from marginalized backgrounds. These students can learn empathy and awareness. They can learn about histories that are often ignored. This helps build understanding across differences. It prepares students to live in a diverse society.

In conclusion, “Ethnic Studies Is Home” shows that Ethnic Studies is more than a subject. It is a space of learning, healing, and empowerment. It has faced criticism, but it has also proven its value. Through decades of struggle and organizing, Ethnic Studies has become a requirement because it works. It helps students succeed academically and personally. Most importantly, it gives students a sense of identity and belonging. For many, Ethnic Studies is not just a class. Ethnic Studies is home.

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• Kay Fischer
• ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)

Why Ethnic Studies

As Ethnic Studies has recently become a requirement for the California State University (CSU) system, and soon the University of California (UC) system, California Community Colleges (CCC), and California high schools, more attention has been placed on Ethnic Studies. I find that most of my community college students don’t know what Ethnic Studies is and may have misconceptions about this discipline that’s over 50 years old. We hope that this Open Educational Resource (OER) put together by six Ethnic Studies instructors will illuminate some of the misunderstandings and mischaracterizations of our beloved discipline. We also hope that this resource will contribute to a new generation of students who will be inspired by the histories, cultures, philosophies, and stories represented in this resource.

Perhaps due to fear or ignorance, or sometimes straight up racism, for as long as Ethnic Studies has existed, there have been efforts to ban, diminish, criticize or censure our programs and curriculum. We’ve been accused of being “Mickey Mouse” or told that Ethnic Studies is not a serious or viable discipline. We’ve also been accused of indoctrinating our students and of spreading hate, or that we are anti-white.

Such attacks on Ethnic Studies teachers, students, classrooms, and curricula are usually baseless, rooted in the very systems of oppression we teach our students about: white supremacy, settler colonialism, and the intersections of racial capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. For practitioners and students who’ve actually taken an Ethnic Studies class, such allegations are confusing, because many of us have found Ethnic Studies to be sites of empowerment, love, joy, and discovery, having made life-changing impacts for generations of students. That’s why it’s no accident that Ethnic Studies became the first and only legislatively backed general education requirement in California. As a result, Ethnic Studies courses will be taught in high schools, community colleges, and the 4-year university systems in this “minority-majority” state.

The advocacy for the Ethnic Studies requirement spans decades of organizing by students, teachers and professors who set up meetings, conversations, wrote letters, developed curriculum, and more, on top of having full-time positions or working multiple part-time jobs, caring for their families, writing books and articles, and/or organizing in various communities. Legislation such as AB 1460 and AB 101 establishing the Ethnic Studies requirement in the CSUs and high schools finally passed because we had multiple studies and data to prove the efficacy of our curricula: raising student attendance, graduation, and success rates, including in classes other than Ethnic Studies. Ethnic Studies has been a proven strategy to tackle racial inequity in schools. More importantly, studies expressed the personal impact of Ethnic Studies on our students’ sense of identity and belonging, highlighting the lasting impression of seeing oneself in the curriculum.

Ethnic Studies came out of struggle and for the past five decades our discipline has always been in a place of contention, so whatever iteration of hate or misjudgement is not new. For those familiar with Ethnic Studies, we know the powerful impact our classroom and curricula have and we have influenced both personal and larger societal, cultural, and political transformations. Obviously, this scares people who have invested in the status quo and internalized ideologies based on hierarchical structures of social status, and access to power and resources.

For many of us, Ethnic Studies is our lifeline. Ethnic Studies saved us. Ethnic Studies is home. And we are not scared easily. We know too well how precious our curricula and classrooms can be and we will not be intimidated nor silenced. We understand that too much is at stake.

Ethnic Studies classrooms, and often our offices after class, have been small spaces of sanctuary, exploration of emotions, rediscoveries of memories we’ve suppressed, for both the instructors and our students. A class like “Intro to Ethnic Studies” can be a site of acknowledgement for the denigrating treatment students receive at work, or they are finally given space to reflect on the internalized effects of colorism on their self-esteem, or students may express cathartic anger that the racially segregated neighborhoods they grew up in have been designed with purpose and targeted for police surveillance and violence.

I value the discussions in class and with students one-on-one within the small quarters of my office or classroom, where they express and address challenges that come with being undocumented, for example, or being mixed race, experiencing abuse, or navigating their mental health. I am especially inspired when witnessing each student’s process of uncovering the personal right along with the political.

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This page titled 1.1: Ethnic Studies is Home is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Kay Fischer (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)) .