Ethnic studies programs

Significance: By exposing members of all racial and ethnic groups to the cultures of minority groups and by helping everyone understand that members of all ethnic groups have made a contribution to the history of North America, ethnic studies programs can help eliminate prejudices and racial divisions.

Ethnic studies programs are courses of study devoted to the history and culture of various ethnic groups. They are valuable for members of the ethnic group that is being studied and also for members of other ethnic or racial groups. Members of groups that are the focus of ethnic studies programs develop a sense of belonging from learning about their group’s cultural history. They also develop a sense of pride and self-esteem from learning about the contributions that members of their group have made to society. When people study the achievements and histories of groups other than their own, they develop an appreciation of the contributions that all groups have made to the development of the United States and Canada. By helping students understand that every group has made its contribution to American history, ethnic studies programs can help eliminate prejudices and racial conflicts.

History

The first fully developed ethnic studies programs were black studies programs that American colleges and universities began to offer in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The first college to offer black studies courses was Merritt Junior College in Oakland, California. Courses were set up after Huey P. Newton and other members of the Black Panther Party, who were students at the college, agitated for their establishment. The first fully developed program in black studies was offered by San Francisco State University very soon after a coalition of African American students took over campus buildings in 1967 and demanded, among other things, a black studies program, dormitories for black students, and admission policies that included an affirmative action philosophy.

After the takeover of San Francisco State University, black student groups all across the United States staged demonstrations and takeovers, including a particularly hostile one at Columbia University, demanding black studies programs and other concessions that would recognize the special culture of African Americans. Larger universities such as Harvard developed black studies majors that generally included courses dealing with the history and cultures of Africa and the African American experience, including African American history, African American literature, and sociological, psychological, and economic issues related to African Americans. Even colleges and universities that could not offer fully developed black studies programs attempted to accommodate African American students by offering courses in African American history and African American literature. Enrollment in these courses was not confined to African American students. Students of other races were very interested in finding out about the African American experience.

In the early 1970s, other ethnic groups, influenced generally by certain social trends of the 1960s, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, and various student uprisings, began to demand recognition of their cultural values and of their members’ contributions to the American experience. Such organizations as the American Indian Movement agitated for Native American control of their children’s education and for an opportunity for young Native Americans to study their culture. When federal legislation established tribal colleges on many Indian reservations in the 1970s and early 1980s, Native American studies became the topic of some of the courses taught at these colleges. All aspects of Native American culture, including history, literature, art, music, and spiritual beliefs, were part of the curriculum. In addition to the tribal colleges, other colleges and universities, particularly those situated in states with large numbers of Native Americans, began to offer courses that explored Native American history and culture.

In the 1970s, universities, particularly in California and Texas, where there are large numbers of Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans, began to offer courses in Chicano (Mexican American) studies, usually concentrating on Mexican American history and literature. Many universities also began offering courses in Asian American history and literature.

Women’s studies programs center around the issue of gender rather than ethnicity, so they cannot be truly classified as ethnic studies programs. However, some researchers have suggested that women constitute a special cultural group. Many of the women’s studies programs in the 1970s were modeled on ethnic studies programs and shared similar goals of promoting understanding and increasing self-respect. Feminists believed that such programs would enhance young women’s self-esteem and feelings of self-worth and that women would derive more respect from society if their contributions became well known. Women’s studies programs had curriculum elements similar to those found in ethnic studies programs—history, literature, psychology, sociology, and economic issues related to women.

By the late 1980s, the number of ethnic studies courses offered by American colleges and universities had dropped since their peak in the late 1970s. Most major colleges and universities still offered many courses that related to the experiences of most major ethnic groups, particularly history and literature courses; however, these courses no longer were designed to teach members of ethnic groups about their own culture and history (the original reason given for black studies courses) but rather to acquaint the general student body with the history and culture of the ethnic group under study.

Impact on American Culture

By the early 1980s, the United States was no longer regarded as a “melting pot” in which members of various cultural groups would assimilate and adopt the values and customs of the Euro-American majority. Instead, the nation was viewed as a culture more appropriately described by terms such as “salad bowl” or “stew pot” in that members of diverse cultural groups maintained many aspects of their culture and lived for the most part in harmony with members of the majority culture. All Americans were expected to attempt to understand and respect the contributions that members of other ethnic and racial groups had made to develop, support, and sustain the nation. Ethnic studies courses contributed to these changes in the philosophical basis of American society.

Ethnic studies programs not only affected those who took these courses in colleges and universities but also changed the curriculum offered to public school students. Public schools, in the late 1970s and 1980s, began to accept the philosophical tenets of ethnic studies programs: that members of all ethnic groups should be exposed to their own history and heritage and that the history and heritage of all ethnic groups is that of the United States. Additionally, these beliefs suggested that every American needs to know and understand the history and heritage of all groups so that all citizens will have a complete understanding of the nation’s culture and history.

Multiculturalism became an essential part of the curricula of public schools. By the end of the twentieth century, public school curricula all across the United States had incorporated multicultural elements. For example, literature courses used anthologies that contained writers who spoke in many different voices, not just Euro-American male writers. History courses attempted to chronicle the contributions of all of the nation’s people, not just its white majority.

Advantages and Concerns

In addition to teaching ethnic and racial minorities about their cultural heritage, these programs often make minority students feel more comfortable on college and university campuses because they increase the likelihood that administrators, professors, and other students will respect their ethnic roots. The programs can serve to ease tensions on campuses as they contribute to overall understandings of various groups’ contributions to society.

Some scholars express concern about ethnic studies programs because they believe these programs contribute to a fragmentation of certain disciplines. For example, some feel that the study of US history is too fragmented when divided into African American, Asian American, Native American, and Chicano history. Other scholars have expressed concern that ethnic studies textbooks attempt to rewrite history, giving certain ethnic groups a predominant role in particular historical or cultural events, when, in fact, the group played only a minor role. In highlighting the contributions of all ethnic groups, these scholars argue, historical facts should not be negated or distorted.

Bibliography

Banks, James A. Teaching Strategies for Ethnic Studies. Boston: Allyn, 1979. Print.

Bengelsdorf, Winnie. Ethnic Studies in Higher Education: State of the Art and Bibliography. Washington, DC: Amer. Assoc. of State Colleges and Universities, 1972. Print.

Butler, Johnnela E., and John C. Walter. Transforming the Curriculum: Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies. Albany: State University of New York, 1991. Print.

Cottrol, Robert J. “America the Multicultural.” American Educator (1990).  Print.

Day, Frances Ann. Multicultural Voices in Contemporary Literature. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1994. Print.