Ethnic Studies in the U.S.: An Introduction

Ethnic Studies in the U.S.: An Introduction provides readers with a comprehensive overview of race and ethnic relations in the United States by comparatively examining the experiences of African American, Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and Chicanx/e and Latinx/e communities.

In particular, it considers the intersections of race and racism as they relate to class, gender, sexuality, and other forms of social categorizations to understand different modes of oppression, resistance, and agency-driven response. The text is organized into four sections: Major Concepts, Histories, Contemporary Issues, and Future Directions. 

The chapters within each section provide comparative perspectives by alternatively focusing on each of these four historically marginalized ethnic groups. Throughout, you will find chapter learning objectives, class polls to measure your incoming knowledge, keywords and definitions, visual and audio aids to enhance your understanding, and occasional mini quizzes to review chapter information and prepare you for larger class exams. 

The instructional material covered in Ethnic Studies in the U.S.: An Introduction supports courses designated to meet the requirements articulated in AB 1460, mandating ethnic studies as a course requirement for all California State University students, and the ethnic studies course regulation adopted by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors in 2021. 

As Brooks Allen, the executive director of the California State Board of Education explains, “California students are wonderfully diverse, and celebrating the contributions of our various communities in curriculum gives students a chance to ‘see’ themselves in the fabric of our state.”

This text approaches learning about African Americans, Native Americans, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, and Chicanx/es and Latinx/es from this perspective. The authors invite students to discover more about themselves and their peers by critically exploring information about these communities that is often not readily available to the general population despite the richness of our state’s—and nation’s—cultural landscape. 

Unfortunately, too frequently, the experiences of communities of color are misrepresented, distorted, discounted, and ignored within mainstream U.S. society. This text, and ethnic studies in general, aims to reverse this process by centering and recovering the histories and experiences of communities of color. 

In turn, students can question and voice their own visions and interpretations, thereby adding to our national dialogue on race and ethnic relations in the U.S. Overall, Ethnic Studies in the U.S.: An Introduction welcomes students’ active engagement and encourages them to see the material presented here as a launching pad for their greater learning beyond the classroom.