Our university has but five core requirements: two classes in quantitative reasoning, two in the communication arts and one ethnic studies course. These are the only five things our campus deems essential for an education, things that every college educated person ought to know. While this may seem like too little, considering the wide range of subjects taught on this campus, one of these requirements seems unnecessary at best, racist at worst. The ethnic studies requirement should be abolished.
I would like to first say I am not some small minded white guy who is complaining about issues of race being a part of our education. On the contrary, I have spent a great deal of my college career studying race relations in politics. I understand that race and ethnicity are major social issues with deep running consequences for individuals and our society as a whole. I even understand the good intentions of people who want a conversation about race to be a mandatory part of our education. Unfortunately, I feel the ethnic studies requirement is counterproductive.
First of all, it waters down the material. Because everyone in the entire school must take an ethnic studies class, even the most racist students on campus, it must be taught in a manner as to not offend anyone. Everyone talks in soft voices that don’t allow them to really dig into America’s dark history on race. Because many classes are designed to appeal to everyone, they are inherently less honest about race in America. One would be offended with a full, honest study of race in America because its history is full of human rights violations and its present situation is bleak and disturbing.
Second, in a very Foucault-esqe way of looking at things, the requirement serves as a punishment. To many it serves as the school nagging at us to ‘be less racist.’ Because of this, it undermines its own basic purpose. As a result many students resent it. I myself resented the requirement and, as I mentioned earlier, I am entirely sympathetic to social and political liberation of minorities in this nation. Furthermore, some professors who teach on race don’t list their classes as ethnic studies classes because they don’t want to have students who resent taking it. The best classes I have taken on race were full of people who wanted to be in the class, not people who resented it and were just trying to fill a requirement.
Finally, making an ethnic studies requirement reinforces the idea that the subject matter is inherently different and, to a lesser extent, that those who are involved in it are inherently inferior.
For example, forcing people to take a class on African American history reinforces the idea that it is inherently separate from American history, which belongs to white people. On the contrary, African American history is a part of American history, and this should be very clear in an American history class. Ethnic studies shouldn’t be taught as something inherently seperate, but rather should be incorporated into the entire liberal arts curriculum. Langston Hughes and Gabriel García Márquez belong in the same literature class as T.S. Eliott and Ernest Hemingway. W.E.B. du Bois and Malcolm X belong in the same political philosophy class as James Madison and Alexis de Tocqueville. An ethnic studies requirement is a Band-Aide for a bullet wound. Rather than correcting the flaws in our entire curriculum, we say, “Take this class and you’ll understand what you need to.”
I understand those in support of the requirement have good intentions, but it actually hurts its own cause. Ethnic studies is a good field of study, but it is a bad requirement. The university ought to abolish the requirement and incorporate ethnic studies into the rest of our curriculum instead.
Do you agree with Spencer? Do you think the ethnic studies requirement is harmful? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
