TED TALK: Ron Espiritu - Why Ethnic Studies Matters! [Writing Response]

 Ron Espiritu was introduced to Ethnic Studies when he attended Amherst College. He explains that before college, his schooling in San Antonio, Texas, did not include books by Latino or African American authors. He only learned about Mexican American history briefly, near the end of the school year. At Amherst College, when he took his first Ethnic Studies course, he realized there was an entire academic discipline he had been excluded from, and this helped him understand his identity and history more deeply (around 6:30–8:00).

To me, Ethnic Studies means learning real histories that are often left out of traditional education. It helps students of color feel seen and respected. Like Espiritu, I believe Ethnic Studies can build confidence, identity, and a stronger connection between students and their communities.

According to Ron Espiritu, Ethnic Studies is empowering, liberating, and transformative. It helps students develop pride in their culture, language, and heritage. He shows this through the Tucson Unified School District Mexican American Studies program, where 93% of students graduated and 85% went on to college, compared to much lower district averages (around 11:30–13:00). Ethnic Studies matters for K–12 students, especially students of color, because it builds identity, critical thinking, and academic success. However, Espiritu also explains that Ethnic Studies faces political opposition, such as when Arizona banned the program in 2011, falsely accusing it of being un-American (around 14:00–16:00).

Examples of MLA in-text citation placement

 

Scott Tsuchitani

• Author
• Teacher

Posted Jan 9 4:47pm

Discussion Topic: Examples of MLA in-text citation placementExamples of MLA in-text citation placement

To further clarify where to locate MLA in-text citations, see the following two examples of student work from other classes:

Example 1

One way U.S. imperialism in Asia influenced the Asian American experience was that the poem "The White Mans Burden" racialized Filipinos as the white men's "little brown brothers" (Fischer and Hodges 5.4). This would infantilize Filipinos and led to instances such as how the grape growers in Delano would call the workers "boy" and disrespect them (PBS 3:55). Another example is that Filipinos were working in "human zoos" and had to preform dehumanizing tasks because the U.S. used them to portray it's imperialist power and justify why they had to be in the Philippines. During WWII, Japanese Americans were racialized as being a spy or a threat to the west. According to "Wars and Imperialism," "Hysteria against the Japanese continued with baseless claims in newspapers and among U.S. politicians and military personnel who believed Japanese Americans were spies for the Japanese military" (Fischer and Hodges 5.4). This led to Japanese Americans being forced into internment camps.

Example 2

I think police officers are more likely to enact police raids on low-income, black neighborhoods because of the deeply rooted bias in our police system. Not only did policing originally start as a way of subduing a colonized people, but in the U.S. many of it’s origins come directly from suppression of people of color and slave patrols (Acevedo and Fischer, 10.4). Not only were cops in the U.S. basically started and trained on racialized oppression, but the persistent modern portrayals of people of color and poor people(and particularly within that intersection) perpetuate the idea that they are criminals, leading to a larger bias against these peoples. Laws involving police choice in who to inspect (like stop and frisk, traffic stops, etc) show that police officers have a strong bias against these communities (Acevedo and Fischer, 10.5). Police are also just in these neighborhoods more than white neighborhoods as a result of all these preconceived notions about BIPOC, which would inherently lead to a larger number of raids.

NOTE

• Each source citation is located at then end of the sentence that references the cited information from that specific source.
• This clearly indicates which information came from which source, and distinguishes it from the student's own argument.
• If you only place a single citation at the end of the paragraph, it is impossible to distinguish between your own thinking and the information from the cited source, so it becomes meaningless.  Your response needs to be framed by your own ideas or analysis.  The citation is only for the evidence you rely on to support your claims, and so should be placed only at the end of the sentence containing the referenced evidence.