Ethnic Studies - History

History

In the United States, the field of Ethnic studies evolved out of the civil rights movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which saw growing self-awareness and radicalization of people of color such as African-Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, and American Indians. Ethnic studies departments were established on many campuses and grew to encompass African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Raza Studies, Chicano Studies, and Native American Studies.

The first strike for Ethnic studies occurred in 1968, led by the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF), a joint effort of the Black Student Union, Latin American Students Organization, Asian American Political Alliance, Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor, and Native American Students Union at San Francisco State University); it was the longest student strike in the nation's history, and resulted in the establishment of a School of Ethnic studies, when President S.I. Hayakawa ended the strike by taking a hardline approach, appointed Dr. James Hirabayashi the first dean of the School (now College) of Ethnic studies at San Francisco State University, and increased recruiting and admissions of students of color in response to the strike's demands. In 1972, The National Association for Ethnic Studies was founded to foster interdisciplinary discussions for scholars and activists concerned with the national and international dimensions of ethnicity.

The University of California at Berkeley minority students united under their own Third World Liberation Front,the TWLF, and initiated the second longest student strike in the history of this country on January 22, 1969. The groups involved were the Mexican American Student Confederation, Asian American Political Alliance, African American Student Union, and the Native Americans. This strike at Berkeley was even more violent than the San Francisco State strike, in that more than five police departments, the California Highway Patrol, Alameda County Deputies, and finally, the California National Guard were ordered onto the Berkeley campus by Ronald Reagan in the effort to quash the strike. The excessive use of police force has been cited with promoting the strike by the alienation of non-striking students and faculty, who protested the continual presence of police presence on the Berkeley campus. The faculty union voted to join the strike on March 2, and two days later the Academic Senate called on the administration to grant an interim Department of Ethnic Studies. On March 7, 1969, President Hitch authorized the establishment of the first Ethnic Studies Department in the country, followed by the San Francisco State Ethnic Studies establishment on March 20, 1969.

Courses in Ethnic studies tried to address the criticism that the role of Asian Americans, Blacks, Mexicans, Latinos and Native Americans in American history was undervalued and ignored because of Euro-centric bias. Ethnic studies also often encompasses issues of gender, class, and sexuality. There are now hundreds of African American, Asian American, and Chicano/Latino Studies departments in the US, approximately fifty Native American Studies departments, and a small number of comparative Ethnic studies programs. Ethnic studies as an institutional discipline varies by location. For instance, whereas the Ethnic studies Department at UC Berkeley comprises separate "core group" departments, the department at UC San Diego does not do so.

While early Ethnic studies scholarship focused on the previously repressed histories and identities of various racialized groups within the context of the U.S., over time the field of study has expanded to encompass transnationalism, comparative race studies and postmodernist/poststructuralist critiques. While pioneering thinkers relied on frameworks, theories and methodologies such as those found in the allied fields of sociology, history, literature and film, scholars in the field today utilize multidisciplinary as well as comparative perspectives, increasingly within an international or transnational context. Most recently, "whiteness" studies has been included as a popular site of inquiry in what is a traditionally academic field for studying the racial formation of communities of color. Instead of including whites as another additive component to the Ethnic studies, whiteness studies has instead focused on how the political and juridical category of white has been constructed and protected in relation to racial "others." Many scholars contend that while racism is a central subject to examine, one must pay attention to and interrogate the social, political and economic conditions which shaped and created race in the first place. Today, what constitutes Ethnic studies work is fluid as scholars have taken up the study of race and ethnicity across almost all disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. In general, an "Ethnic studies approach" is loosely defined as any approach that emphasizes the cross-relational and intersectional study of different groups.