Talk:Ethnic studies
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[edit] Article name
The proper capitalization for the article name is "ethnic studies", as it is an academic subject, not a proper noun. Howee improperly moved this article from Ethnic studies to Ethnic Studies by not using the Movepage function. Instead, the page was manually copied over. As a result, I had to move the page back in a similar manner. —MementoVivere 06:52, 18 July 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Right wing critics
The articile attributes a number of criticisms of ethnic studies to right wingers that I have heard expressed by left wingers, I'll change that bit.
Attributing all criticism to right is a slant in favour of ethnic studies. I will do better disambiguation. FWBOarticle 18:43, 13 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Clean up
This page desprately needs to be cleaned up, over half is devoted to criticisms of ethnic studies ( I am not saying we should reduce the size of this section, just that we should increase the size of the rest of the articile) it needs subheadings, I think it could probably use a fact checking and it seems a bit POV ( i.e the overall "feel" given off by the articile is that the only critics of ethnic studies are right wing nuts, and that it's critics are racists and have absloutely no case for there beliefs.) Very little introduction is given to the actual theories of Ethnic studies ( schools of thought should be covered). There are no pictures ( in an articile this important there should be at least one picture for aesthetic effect.) It sounds like it's largely the result of a "debate" between a anti ethnic studies wikipedist and a pro ethnic studies wikipedist ( I don't know if this actually happened, but it sounds like this, and that's not good.) Hence I ask any passing adminstrator to label this articile as in need of a clean up, and consider putting a POV concern tag, the articile could also use a peer review.
Ward Churchill is a poor representative of Ethnic studies, and a marginal figure within the field. Yet the criticism section is almost wholly focused on controversy regarding him. The entire article, consequently, looks as if it was written by a journalist with an eye for sensationalist controversy, but no knowledge of the field(s) of ethnic studies.--JStripes 16:13, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] In Academia
There is no mention of schools that have ethnic studies departments. In California, UCB and UCSD have ethnic studies departments that grant B.A. and PhD degrees.
Also, there is no discussion regarding ethnic studies vs. the study of individual racial groups (e.g. African American studies). There are different ways of how this plays out for undergraduate programs, and here are examples:
UCLA: Has individual and seperate departments for major racial groups. (e.g. Asian American Studies)
UCB: Has an Ethnic Studies Department which offers programs in Asian American, Chicano, and Native American studies, in addition to a more broad Ethnic Studies program. It should be noted that African American studies is its own department. SFSU's College of Ethnic Studies is organized in a similar fashion to UCB, but includes Africana Studies.
UCSD: Has a single Ethnic Studies department with a single Ethnic Studies program. Focus on a single racial or ethinc group is not allowed.
The difference in organization alludes to the difference in teaching methods and focus. UCSD's Ethnic Studies program in general is arguably more comparative and theoretical than a singular racial study program, while these programs such as Asian American studies are obviously more specific.
[edit] Myths Debunked
Ethnic Studies is not the mere study of easily recognizable cultural aspects such as food and holidays.
As 'ethnic' infers people of color, it may come as a suprise that "whiteness" is a site of study in the field. Lipsitz and Omi and Winant are more well-known scholars on this topic. The introduction, in fact, may be too simplistic as it states that ethnic studies only studies minority peoples. While this is true, the field also includes race and knowledge theory that does not study a specific racial or ethnic group per se, but studies race in general.
[edit] Links
The link to the Asian Nation website could be miscategorized and would be better in the Asian Americn Studies page.
[edit] Ethnic Minorities vs. Ethnicity
I changed the first sentence to say "ethnicity" instead of "ethnic minorities". I assume by "ethnic minorities" what was meant was people of colour. Apart from the fact that the term "ethnic minorities" is a misnomer in many contexts, it isn't even correct to say that Ethnic Studies is limited to them. Increasingly, it deals with studies of "whiteness", and so "ethnicity" is more succinct, more clear, and more accurate.
