Source: Slides 1, Dr. Siri Brown, UC Berkeley
Tags: ethnic studies, Eurocentrism, race, ethnicity, racism, institutional racism, internalized racism, personally mediated racism, Third World Liberation Front, SFSU strike, Merritt College, UC Berkeley ES department
Ethnic Studies emerged from student-led movements in the late 1960s that demanded universities centre the histories and experiences of marginalised racial and ethnic groups. The field examines how race is categorised, how racism operates at multiple levels (personal, institutional, internalised), and how traditional academic disciplines have historically been framed through a Eurocentric lens.
Eurocentric / Eurocentrism
The tendency to interpret the world through Western, European, and Anglo-Saxon beliefs and ideals. Present across disciplines: history, art, philosophy, sociology, literature, cultural studies, political science, and anthropology. Example: the way King Tut's legacy is framed even in major scientific publications reflects Eurocentric assumptions.
Race
Categorisation of humans into populations or groups based on heritable characteristics, most often salient visual traits such as skin colour, facial features, hair texture, and self-identification.
Ethnicity
People who identify or share a common heritage (real or presumed), further marked by the recognition of a group's distinctiveness through common cultural, linguistic, religious, and behavioural traits.
Personally mediated racism
One of three kinds of racism identified in the course. Racism enacted between individuals through prejudice and discrimination.
Internalized racism
When people from targeted groups absorb the myths and misinformation that society communicates about their group. Over time, they may come to feel (often unconsciously) that they are less worthy, capable, or intelligent than people outside their group. They turn the experience of oppression inward and begin acting as if stereotypes are true.
Institutional racism (structural/systematic racism)
Any form of racism occurring within institutions: government bodies and policies, private businesses, the legal system, and universities. Operates through structures rather than individual acts.
Traditional academic disciplines have centred Western knowledge systems
Literature canons overwhelmingly feature white, Western authors (e.g. TKAM, Catcher in the Rye, Gatsby, Moby Dick)
Even scientific publications reproduce Eurocentric framing
Ethnic Studies developed as a corrective, shifting perspectives to centre the marginalised
Personally mediated: prejudice and discrimination between individuals
Internalized: targeted groups absorbing and believing negative myths about themselves
Institutional/structural: racism embedded in laws, policies, organisations, and systems of governance
1964–1967: Merritt College (Oakland, home of the Black Panthers) becomes the first junior college to offer an associate arts degree in Afro-Studies
SFSU Student Strike: the Third World Liberation Front Strikes demanded ethnic studies programmes at San Francisco State University
UC Berkeley's Ethnic Studies Department was established through similar student activism
Comparative study of racialisation in the Americas
Focus on histories, literatures, and politics of Asian Americans, Chicanos/Latinos, Native American Indians, and African Americans
Situates these groups within national and transnational contexts
Examines how racial and ethnic formation intersects with class, gender, and sexuality
Interdisciplinary: questions traditional disciplinary boundaries
Explicitly linked to social practice, social change, and social justice
Some textbooks label enslaved people brought to the Americas as "immigrants," which misrepresents the forced nature of the transatlantic slave trade
Language choices in educational materials carry ideological weight
⚠️ Know the three kinds of racism and be able to distinguish between them with examples.
⚠️ Understand internalized racism in depth: how targeted groups absorb societal myths and begin to act as though stereotypes are true, often unconsciously.
⚠️ The historical origins of Ethnic Studies (Merritt College, SFSU strikes, UC Berkeley) are likely testable as they establish why the discipline exists.
⚠️ Be ready to explain what Eurocentrism looks like across multiple disciplines, not just one.
Q: What are the three kinds of racism discussed in this course, and how do they differ?
A: Personally mediated (individual prejudice/discrimination between people), institutional/structural (racism embedded in institutions, laws, and policies), and internalized (when targeted groups absorb and believe negative societal myths about their own group). They differ in scale and mechanism: personal is interpersonal, institutional operates through systems, and internalized turns oppression inward.
Q: What is internalized racism and how does it develop?
A: Internalized racism occurs when people from targeted groups, after sustained discrimination and oppression, begin to believe the myths and misinformation society communicates about their group. They come to feel, often unconsciously, that they are less worthy or capable than people outside their group. They turn oppression inward and act as if stereotypes are true.
Q: Why did Ethnic Studies emerge as an academic discipline in the late 1960s?
A: Student-led movements (the Third World Liberation Front strikes at SFSU, activism at UC Berkeley, and Merritt College's pioneering Afro-Studies degree) demanded that universities create programmes centring the histories and experiences of marginalised racial and ethnic groups, which traditional Eurocentric curricula had excluded.
Q: How does the labelling of enslaved people as "immigrants" in textbooks reflect Eurocentrism?
A: It erases the forced, violent nature of the transatlantic slave trade by using language that implies voluntary migration. This framing minimises the experience of enslaved people and centres a narrative more comfortable for dominant (European-descended) perspectives.
Eurocentrism, Western-centric, Anglo-Saxon bias, race definition, ethnicity definition, personally mediated racism, institutional racism, structural racism, systematic racism, internalized racism, internalized oppression, Third World Liberation Front, SFSU student strike, Merritt College, Black Panthers, UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies, comparative racialization, interdisciplinary studies, social construction of race, marginalized perspectives