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Ethnic studies wasn’t about incorporation/positioning folks from our communities in positions of power to oppress. To be rolled on in to structures that were meant to never be for us but also to placate and discipline. It wasn’t about how our ancestors help build this country.
Ethnic studies wasn’t even a US-centric project. It was internationalist in its spirit. Folks descended from enslaved Africans, colonized, and actively occupied peoples looked to their relatives all over global south experimenting and engaging in all out war against colonizers.
It wasn’t perfect either. But it was inspiring. And now we have this idea that somehow those of us from US have all the answers or that a lot of still don’t have a lot to learn and exchange with our relatives from global south. We have a duty to serve folks from our locations.
Ethnic studies wasn’t about some of us becoming brands or celebrity representatives of a project that is so much bigger than us.
I have a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies. There are not a lot of us out here. There is a lot of folks who were trained in other disciplines that engage in Ethnic Studies, tho. There are some differences, tho. They’re important.
Now Ethnic Studies has become a battle for institutionalization. Or about competing for the same half dozen fellowships. Or the same dozen post-docs. And has further and furthered so many of us from communities that we are supposed to still be learning from, with, and fighting 4
I’m from that Ethnic Studies that isn’t about my name or myself. I’m from that Ethnic Studies that is always thinking about undermining and chipping away at the institutions I work for. I’m from Ethnic Studies that demands we become thieves and insurgents. That we be disruptive.
My dream is to just teach Ethnic Studies courses in parks in my hood. Do whole classes that are responsive to what community members wanna learn about and how we can collectively learn from our pasts and presents to build towards just futures. W each other.
And in some real fantastical spin, I’d like to have wealthy people who got their money from systematized exploitation anyway, to pay all of us to teach and learn these things. Least they can do.
