Ethnic Studies Research Guide

"Ethnic Studies is the study of the histories, experiences, cultures, and issues of racial ethnic groups in the United States. The Ethnic Studies discipline emphasizes the social and historical study of race and racism in the United States, and it is defined by its attention to the systemic power relations that arise from institutional, cultural, and societal, contextually imposed or chosen meanings and interpretations of “race.” While the focus is on the experiences of racialized peoples in the United States, the department also understands that race and racism are not unique or exclusive to the United States and can be juxtaposed with academic parallels made beyond the borders of the United States."

-CSU-Bakersfield's Ethnic Studies Department Mission and Description

"Students have been at the front of the demand for ethnic studies since as long ago as late 1966, when black students at San Francisco State College called for a comprehensive and culturally responsive black studies department. In November 1968, after two years of administrative inaction, black students, staff, teachers, and administrators went on strike, and the Black Student Union demanded a new Black Studies department with twenty full-time positions. The strike began on November 6 and within two days was endorsed by a coalition of Black, brown, Native American, and Asian-American students who had organized the Third World Liberation Front in the spring of 1967. The Third World Liberation Front added demands, including “a call for a School of Ethnic Studies, which would encompass the study of other racially oppressed groups” (Biondi, 2012, p.56).

The coalition groups argued that the college curriculum lacked relevance to their experience and histories as people of color in the United States. Students boldly argued against institutionalized racism and inequalities and condemned curriculum that promoted the “white savior” narrative that relegated “Third World peoples” to “faceless, dumb, creatures” who are acted upon rather than being “actors and doers who have played vital roles in shaping the course of American history” (Murase, 1976, p. 206). Students at SFSC rallied for increased funding and support for ethnic studies, for increased enrollment of students of color, for an education that reflected their history and experiences as people of color, and for an education that allowed them to serve their communities. The strike ended on March 20, 1969. The administration created a Black studies department and established a pioneering School of Ethnic Studies, later renamed the College of Ethnic Studies after expanding to include programs in Chicano, Asian-American, and Native American studies."

From the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) article: "Ethnic Studies: Looking Back; Looking Forward"

"If Racism means both racist action and inaction in the face of racism, then anti-racism means active participation in combating racism in all forms. Being an anti-racist requires persistent self-awareness, constant self criticism, and regular self examination." 

- Kendi, Ibram X. (2020) Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You. Little, Brown, and Company, New York.

Intersectionality is a term coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989.  It originated as a way to discuss how systems of oppression overlap and create distinct experiences for people with multiple identity categories. While this term was created by Crenshaw to explain the unique experience that Black women face in addition to racism and sexism, the word has continued to encompass more identities. (The Editors, 2020) Today, intersectionality acknowledges that we must consider everything that can marginalise people – gender, race, class, sexual orientation, physical ability, etc and that these forms of oppression can overlap. Intersectionality is very integral in political/social issues and be popularly seen in the Women's Rights Movement. 

Crenshaw's works on intersectionality can be found below:

• Crenshaw, K. (1989). "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics." The University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989(1).


• Crenshaw, K. (1991). "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color." Stanford Law Review 43(6): 1241-1299.

Information located via the Gibson D. Lewis Library -  Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Libguide

While formal definitions vary in wording, they have commonalities.

1. Equal rights
2. Equal opportunity
3. Equal treatment

With these core values in mind, we can define the phrase: Social justice means equal rights and equitable opportunities for all.

Social Justice Issues

Social justice encompasses a wide range of issues and advocates for the fair treatment of all people, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability or socioeconomic status.

Some of the most pressing social justice issues include:

• Economic inequality: The gap between the rich and the poor is growing wider in many countries. This is a major social justice issue, leading to a lack of opportunity for the poor and marginalized.
• Racial injustice: People of color are disproportionately affected by poverty, crime and violence and face discrimination in employment, housing and education.
• Gender injustice: Women and girls have historically been denied the same rights and opportunities as men and face discrimination in the workplace, in education and in politics.
• Disability injustice: People with disabilities are often denied the same rights and opportunities as people without disabilities and face discrimination at work and in their communities.
• Environmental injustice: People of color and low-income communities are often disproportionately affected by environmental pollution and the impacts of climate change.

From the San Diego Foundation webpage

"Colonialism has been defined as systems and practices that “seek to impose the will of one people on another and to use the resources of the imposed people for the benefit of the imposer'' (Assante, 2006). Colonialism can operate within political, sociological, cultural values and systems of a place even after occupation by colonizers has ended. Colonization is defined as the act of political, physical and intellectual occupation of space by the (often forceful) displacement of Indigenous populations, and gives rise to settler-colonialism, colonial and neo-colonial relations, and coloniality. 

Settler-Colonialism is a form of colonization in which outsiders come to land inhabited by Indigenous peoples and claim it as their own [in perpetuity] (Tuck and Yang, 2019). This means that settler colonialism is not just a vicious act of the past; it exists as long as settlers are living on appropriated land, as is the case in Canada (Hurwitz and Bourque, 2014). Distinctions between colonialism and settler-colonialism are evident when examining the historical capture and forced enslavement of pan-African individuals who were brought to Turtle Island. In speaking to the ways in which colonialism as a form of conquest is co-constituted by the genocide of Indigenous people and the enslavement of Black people, Black studies scholar Tiffany Lethabo King (2020) invites us to make space for Black studies and histories in white settler colonial studies. In doing so, King (2020) considers possible conversations and engagements among scholars in Black studies, Native studies, ethnic studies, settler colonial studies, and other critical discourses when we return to the logics of conquest. Nonetheless, all non-Indigenous individuals benefit from the white, settler-colonial state as it stands today (Hurwitz and Bourque, 2014)"

Defined by York University's Systems of Oppression - Colonialism, Coloniality, and and Settler Colonialism webpage