Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
I hope this message finds you well. Thank you so much for signing and promoting! We appreciate your support a great deal.
History of The College of Ethnic Studies:
From 1968-1969, students, staff, faculty and members from the Black Student Union and Third World Liberation Front organized a series of protests against the misrepresentation, lack of access and neglect of people of color within their university’s programs. Their specific demands led to the establishment of four departments within a College of Ethnic Studies: La Raza Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies and Black Studies. These programs reflected the diverse intellectual and socio-cultural expressions of indigenous and artists of color in the United States. It is in this historical spirit and energy of self-determination, that we are continuing to demand an end or at the very least, a pause to the merger of these Departments (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/african-american-black-studies-origins-explained
The Africana Studies Department offers both a Bachelor of Arts degree and a minor. The discipline of Africana Studies provides students with the experiences of challenging traditional thoughts and practices, and also gives them an opportunity to explore new and alternative paradigms and theories. It not only prepares students to understand the world in which they live, but to see where the world is wanting and to have the ability and the desire to make it better.
In studying Africana Studies, students are able to learn about critique, and be inspired by the accomplishments of Africans and African Americans who shaped and are shaping the moral conscience, artistic genius, scientific and technical achievements, and political activism of their time. Students use the Black community as a classroom where lessons can be learned and taught.
In our next update, we will focus on the Latin American, Caribbean, & U.S. Latino Studies Department and its framework/program.
Please continue to share our petition on all social media!
New Links Added to the Petition:
The Origin of Ethnic Studies (Students Promoting Empowerment & Knowledge (SPEak):
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/speak/SPEaK_history_theOriginsofEthnicStudies.htm
Fikes, Robert (2015). What Can you Do with a Black Studies Major?
https://africana.sfsu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/black_studies_majors_2015.pdf
Huerta, Alvaro (2020). Why Students Should be Required to Take Ethnic Studies, Inside Higher Education https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/05/15/why-students-should-be-required-take-ethnic-studies-opinion
(Podcast) The Movement to Erase Black History, Culture and Joy:
https://www.aclu.org/podcast/the-movement-to-erase-black-history-culture-and-joy
Racial & Ethnic Equity in U.S. Higher Education: