What I think about Ethnic Studies

To me, Ethnic Studies is a discipline teaching people of different ethnicities the history, traditions, and lessons about their ethnicities. It is different from anthropology and sociology because it is focused on teaching you about yourself and where you’ve come from, the struggles that your people have come from, and how those effect you in today’s society. Sociology focuses on the changing societies, and a bigger picture, and anthropology looks at the evolution of humans, which can tie into ethnic studies but on a different level. I see anthropology dealing more with the human body structure and ethnic studies more on the personal person.

I believe Ethnic Studies has as a discipline because of the awareness and understanding it brings to people about their ethnicities. I can honestly say as a Latino/a studies and Biology major, the view I had of myself and my how I identified myself has changed. Before I started taking La Raza classes, I identified myself as a Hispanic. Then, after reading different articles and books, I learned that the word “Hispanic” was used as a derogatory term against us. The word “Hispanic” back then meant a poor dirty Spanish person, not the general term it is used as today. Since that lesson, I now identify myself as a Mexican- American, which can still have some implications, but it’s just what I feel comfortable with saying. To add, by being in these Raza classes, I have learned about the history of family, by doing oral histories, and about myself as a person. From my perspective, I feel every group benefits and can benefit from taking ethnic studies courses. There is so much information out there about every group, but you have to go looking for it because there is also so much that is covered up or trying to be covered up. By taking these courses, your brain becomes picked at a little bit and makes you think about certain issues, that you then thirst to find more information about and that right there is what has made me find out who I really am and where I have come from.

The state of Arizona has now banned all teachings of ethnic studies because they feel the classes are trying to overthrow the U.S. government. Basically, by teaching students, especially Mexican-American students, about their history they will feel more inclined to go against the government, which can be true, but also unfair in the sense that those students only get to learn about U.S. history and not theirs.

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