How many lives, careers, and reputations could be saved by the knowledge and dispositions that these kinds of courses provide? The answer is not to rail against feminists or the #MeToo movement for ostensibly raising a high bar—which simple human decency and respect toward others is not. Nor should parents or families be entirely blamed. After all, parents got the same (mis)education as their children.
Expressed differently, a systematic failure of our schools and society to offer these courses in sufficient numbers means that many of those present at tomorrow's Senate judiciary hearing will have failed to reap the benefits either of an enhanced, critical understanding of human experience or the skills, knowledge, and sense of empowerment and personal responsibility that are crucial to the successful, and ideally, fulfilling, negotiating of difference in a complex society and world.
When will we learn?
-Angela Valenzuela
 |
| Getty images |
Recently someone wrote a letter to the editor of
our local paper criticizing
our university’s Ethnic Studies and Women, Gender,
and Sexuality Studies programs
for being divisive by their focus on “tiny
subgroups” (African Americans, Chicanos,
Asian Americans, LGBTQ people, women)
rather than the larger human population.
In other words, this writer believes we don’t
need Ethnic Studies (ES) and Women,
Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS)
because we should be teaching about our
common humanity rather than our
different identities, experiences, and cultures.
He could not be more wrong.
First of all, human beings do experience
themselves as people who have gender,
race, sexuality, and culture. And those
differences lead to different experiences in
the world.
If we are to broaden
and deepen our understanding of human experience, we have
to examine it in all
of its diversity and understand the difference difference makes.
Ignoring
social differences in human experience in academic study would make
as much sense as ignoring differences in fish or stars or flowers. Commonalities
don’t
negate differences.
Second, those “tiny subgroups” are actually the
majority of the human population,
and, yet, those subgroups are still mostly
ignored or marginalized in much of the
curriculum of higher education. Ethnic
Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Studies ensure that students have an
opportunity to develop skills to understand
how race, gender, sexuality, and
other forms of difference work in the world.
Third, research shows that taking Ethnic Studies
and Women, Gender, and
Sexuality Studies classes is good for students and helps
achieve the goals of higher
education.
Many Ethnic Studies and Women, Gender, and
Sexuality Studies students are
members of the groups studied in these courses,
and they are attracted to courses
that focus on their communities, identities,
and histories because they do not find
their experiences and concerns centered
in many other classes throughout the
university.
Research shows that ES and
WGSS courses have positive impacts on these students.
Taking these courses
improves students’ sense of empowerment and their sense of
self-worth and
enhances student engagement and academic achievement.
ES and WGSS courses also have positive impact on
all students, especially
heterosexual white men. White students who take Ethnic
Studies courses experience
reduction in prejudice and bias, and they become
more democratic in their orientation.
Students in ES and WGSS classes become
more empathetic and more accepting of
diversity.
Additionally, students who take ES and WGSS
courses develop greater cognitive
complexity and higher levels of thinking
because of their exposure to diverse
experiences and ideas.
And on campuses with strong attention to
diversity, students across all groups
report that they are more satisfied with
their college experience than students
who do not engage diversity in college.
Finally, ES and WGSS faculty contribute
essential scholarship to local and global
communities. Here at Oregon State
University my ES and WGSS colleagues are
involved with research on motherhood,
immigration, minority health, student
success, and transnational adoption, to
name a few topics. One just returned from
supporting a medical team working
with refugees in southern Iraq. Another works
with Latino/a communities in
Oregon. One was nationally recognized last year for
work on behalf of
transgender people. Another was recently honored by our local
community on MLK Day for his work with students and other people of color on
campus and in the community.
Ethnic Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Studies bring unique analytical
lenses to academic study that help us
understand how race, gender, sexuality, and
other forms of difference shape
individual and group experiences. They help us
examine social institutions and
the roles these institutions play in maintaining social
inequality. And these
academic disciplines also help us think about how people can
work to bring
about changes in the world that create more inclusive, equitable, and
just
workplaces, families, schools, churches, and other social organizations.
We still need Ethnic Studies and Women, Gender,
and Sexuality Studies because
race, gender, and sexuality are still important
facets of human experience that give
shape to the ways we are in the world. We
need ES and WGSS because people from
those “tiny subgroups” need an academic
home to explore their concerns. We need
ES and WGSS because all students
benefit from exposure to diverse people and
ideas. And we need ES and WGSS
because the world still needs academics who can
help us see things in a new way
and develop skills to create a world that is
life-affirming for us all.
Follow Susan M. Shaw on Twitter: www.twitter.com/drsusanmshaw
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