The Academic and Social Values of Ethnic Studies

Connection Post: In the reading, The Academic and Social Values of Ethnic Studies, Christine talks about how important ethnic studies is to students from different backgrounds and cultures. While reading this I was able to make a connection to another reading we did, The Four "I"s of Oppression, this concept is considered institutional oppression. The history taught in classrooms is by those who are in power and always have been in power, this is all-white history. Classrooms are not teaching students about black history or different cultures. This doesn't allow students from different cultures to learn anything about their background, which is why ethnic studies is important. Another connection I made was from the movie we had watched in class called "Previous Knowledge." In this film there was a Mexican American studies program being taught at Tucson High School. This program brought together so many students who didn't know where they belonged. It allowed them to learn more about their culture and specific identities. Once these students started to learn more about where they came from, they started to enjoy going to school and learning. This film connects with the reading by Christine because she talks about how important these ethnic studies are and how much it impacts a student's life. Christine talks about Carlos who just graduated high school and found school to be very uninteresting but when he ran into a friend who introduced him to a Chicano studies program at his local community college. A quote that stuck out to me in this reading was, "For the first time in his life, the curriculum was centered on his reality." And this is the very reason why so many people aren't interested in learning the curriculum because it is based on white history. Carlos went on to finish two years at the community college and completed his BA degree in Spanish.  This is a prime example of how important it is to include these studies and programs in the school system to acknowledge not only the standard American history but the history of those who come from all around the world. 

I have included a link to learn more about why ethnic studies are important from Yale University. 

Why ethnic studies matters | Ethnicity, Race, and Migration (yale.edu)