Ethnic Studies: Race, Culture, and Identity

• Ethnic Studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines race, ethnicity, and identity, with a focus on the histories, cultures, and experiences of marginalized communities.
• The 1965 Immigration Act abolished national origin quotas, leading to increased immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
• Anti-Miscegenation Laws, which prohibited interracial marriage, were deemed unconstitutional in the Loving v. Virginia (1967) Supreme Court case.
• BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, highlighting the unique experiences of these groups in discussions about race.
• Citizenship is a legal status that grants rights and responsibilities within a nation, often linked to national identity and belonging.
• Class is a social system of hierarchy based on factors such as economic status, wealth, education, and occupation.
• Culture encompasses the shared beliefs, customs, arts, and practices of a group, passed down through generations.
• Dialogue Principles are guidelines for respectful and productive conversations, particularly when discussing identity and social issues.
• Ethnicity is a category of identity rooted in shared cultural traits, language, and heritage, different from race.
• Eugenics is a pseudoscience focused on "improving" human populations through controlled breeding, frequently associated with racist and ableist ideologies.
• Externally constructed identity is how society labels individuals, while internally constructed identity is how individuals perceive themselves.
• Gender identity refers to one's internal sense of being male, female, both, or neither. Gender expression is how one outwardly presents their gender through clothing, behavior, and mannerisms.
• Hispanic refers to those with Spanish-speaking backgrounds. Latino/a/x refers to people from Latin America, regardless of language.
• Identity is an individual's sense of self, shaped by their experiences with personal, cultural, and social influences.
• Intersectionality, a concept coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, describes how multiple social identities (race, gender, class) intersect, creating unique experiences of discrimination or privilege.
• Loving v. Virginia was a U.S. Supreme Court case from 1967 that invalidated laws prohibiting marriages between people of different races

Other important topics

• Minority refers to a socially or numerically disadvantaged group in a society, often as a result of historical and systemic inequalities.
• Mixed Race refers to a person with ancestry from multiple racial backgrounds.
• Nationality is legal belonging to a specific nation, sometimes overlapping with ethnicity but distinct from it.
• The concept of race originated as a social construct used to justify inequalities, particularly during colonialism and slavery.
• People of Color is a broad term referring to non-white individuals, often used when discussing systemic racism.
• Positionality means being aware of how one's own social identity (race, gender, class, etc.) influences their perspective and interactions.
• Preferred Nomenclature Terms are the most accurate and respectful terms used to describe identity groups, evolving over time.
• Privilege refers to unearned advantages that are based on social identity, such as race, gender, or class.
• Earned privilege is acquired through personal effort, while unearned privilege is conferred by societal structures.
• White privilege refers to the systemic advantages that are granted to white people in a racially stratified society.
• Race is a socially constructed category based on perceived physical traits that has been historically used to justify discrimination.
• Race relies on perceived physical traits, while ethnicity is rooted in cultural background and heritage.
• Sex (Biological) is the classification of individuals as male, female, or intersex based on anatomy and genetics.
• Sexual orientation describes a person's pattern of romantic or sexual attraction, for example, heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual.
• Genetic studies reveal greater variation within racial groups than between them, which supports the argument that race is not biologically inherent.
• Social Construct: an idea created and maintained by society, rather than existing naturally (e.g., race, gender roles, class).
• Social Identity Groups are categories that are based on shared social characteristics like race, gender, religion, or nationality.
• Third World Liberation Front was a coalition of student activists in the late 1960s that advocated for Ethnic Studies programs in universities through protests and strikes.

Explore ethnic studies: an interdisciplinary field examining race, ethnicity, and identity, emphasizing marginalized communities' histories and cultures. Understand key concepts such as the 1965 Immigration Act, Anti-Miscegenation Laws, BIPOC, citizenship, and class.