Ethnic Studies Overview

• African American
• Asian and Pacific Islander
• Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x
• Native American

• Grade Level
• Integrated
• Stand Alone
• Thematic/Comparative

• Identity
• History and Movement
• Social Movements and Equity
• Systems of Power

• Pursuit of justice and equity.
• Working towards greater inclusivity.
• Furthering self-understanding.
• Developing a better understanding of others.
• Recognizing intersectionality.
• Promoting self-empowerment for civic engagement.
• Supporting a community focus.
• Developing interpersonal communication.

Your world view is the lens that helps you interpret reality. It is the set of assumptions, things that you believe to be the case even without proof, and assertions, strongly worded statements of facts that you look at every choice and decision that comes in your life, and helps shape your values and commitments in your day-to-day living.

A truthful world view or false one is dependent upon three tests of accuracy: logical consistency, empirically verifiable, and experiential relevance. Each of the three components of truth are supported through correspondence, where answers respond to applied reality, and coherence, where all answers fit as an integrated whole within your world view. 

Your worldview influences the reliability of information you receive and discover. It provides the context upon which social movements, historical events, and institutional policies can be understood. Your world view helps to establish the identity of people, their cultural uniqueness, and their valuable contributions made towards human existence on earth.⁴

Ethnic studies seeks to understand humanity in context of the written narratives, philosophical writings, religious texts, historical records, and lived experiences of people. There is a researched perspective (Karenga, 2009) that believes humanity is deeply enriched by acknowledging the worthiness of all human beings, the inherent dignity of people as being created in the image of God, having inalienable rights to freedom and justice, where in humanity transcends all social, biological, and anthropological statuses or categories, and views no people as inherently superior or inferior to one another, and equal in the right to pursue self-determination and self-existence. This premise, if agreed upon, serves as the lens through which challenging topics in ethnic studies can be evaluated against their relationship to supporting the equitable features of humanity.⁵

Ethnic studies often explores aspects of American culture in relationship to identifying its uniquely recognizable features, shared commonalities, and amalgam characteristics of indigenous, immigrant, and domestic ethnic groups. Whether exploring the cultural features of a single ethnic group or comparing cultural characteristics between multiple ethnic groups, there are common manifestations of culture ethnic studies concerns itself with to include the ways people express themselves through shared beliefs, customs, traditions, language, manners, and values. The meaning of gestures, symbols, expressions, clothing, and rituals are additional features that can be included into describing culture. A more enhanced view of what culture incorporates in Karenga’s research (2015), is described as the exploration of the totality of thought and practices by which a people celebrates itself, creates itself, appreciates itself, sustains, develops, and introduces itself to world history and humanity (Karenga, 2009).⁷

Moreover, as Gavin (2014) discussed in his presentation on his research world languages becoming halved by 2045 and making it more difficult for indigenous peoples to communicate their collective knowledge, culture, contributions, and future aspirations to the record of human history: “Knowing the foundations and composition of society cannot be determined by a small cultural group of people because doing so denies the history, language, knowledge, and contributions of indigenous or marginalized peoples, while defining them as aberrant, atypical, or deviant.”⁸ 

Valuing the contributions people have made to the historical record of world history is another entry point into ethnic studies. Significant contributions which serve to commonly connect people through religious or spiritual values, ethical principles, historical records, social structure, economic framework, and political organization have played important roles in the development of U.S. and world history. Other areas of contributions that are studied as topics within ethnic studies are creative achievements in visual and performing arts, literature, music, inventions, entrepreneurial innovations, and engineering feats. 

Exploring, acknowledging, and verifying the contributions of people within a culturally diverse society, as Levinson notes (2014), is significant towards empowering students to become civically conscious and responsible, and to building a truly egalitarian society.⁹

Mutual respect for people is a premise that establishes an equally valuable way of viewing what it means to be human in this world. The perspective of mutual respect has as its defining features (Karenga, 2009) the following tenets: mutual respect for each people’s right and responsibility to speak their own cultural truth (narrative) and to make their own unique contribution to the forward flow of history; mutual commitment to the constant search for common interests in the midst of our diversity (starts with respect and recognizing that we have common existential interests); mutual commitment to an ethics that results in shared responsibilities for building the world in which people want to live in (based upon the understanding the greatest good in the world are shared goods of humanity); mutual respect stresses the importance of shared status, shared living space, shared environment, power, and resources from the earth. Thus, the concept of mutual respect addresses the existential interests all humans have as a means to galvanize support for sharing the earth’s environment, natural resources, living space, and commitments to ethical and moral principles.¹⁰

Ethnic studies, as an academic discipline, seeks to find answers to and explore the meaning of questions related to humanity.

• Existential Questions: Human origin, purpose, morality, and destiny.
• Human Condition Questions: the experiences, characteristics, emotions, challenges, and triumphs that are common to human beings.

Ethnic studies seeks to organize its research and base its discussions on familiar domains, themes, and institutions.

• Domains: Scholarship, Worldview, Humanity, Culture, Contributions, Mutual Respect
• Themes:  History and Movement, Identity, Social Movements and Equity, Sovereignty, Systems of Power
• Institutions: Political, Government, Education, Banking, Real Estate, Religion, Military/ Police, etc.

Ethnic studies analyzes and explores the experiences, history, and contributions of specifically identified ethnic groups of people.

• Core Groups: African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x, and Native Americans
• Approaches: Grade Level, Integrated, Stand Alone, Thematic/Comparative
• Key Words: Terms, Phrases, Vocabulary, Colloquial Language

Ethnic studies endeavors to apply its research, concepts, and topics towards real-world applications for students.

• Community-based, entrepreneurial-based, STEAM-based, College and Career Education, social-emotional learning, social-justice-based.