Ethnic Studies

Recent attacks on Ethnic Studies, revisionist actions in curriculum content, and anti-immigrant policies are creating a new culture war in America. This important work lays out the current debates--both in K-12 and higher education--to uncover the dangers and to offer solutions. In 2010, HB 2281--a law that bans ethnic studies in Arizona--was passed; in the same year, Texas whitewashed curriculum and textbook changes at the K-12 level. Since then, the nation has seen a rise in the legal and political war on Ethnic Studies, revisionist actions in curriculum content, and anti-immigrant policies, creating a new culture war in America. "White" Washing American Education demonstrates the value and necessity of Ethnic Studies in the 21st century by sharing the voices of those in the trenches--educators, students, community activists, and cultural workers--who are effectively using multidisciplinary approaches to education. This two-volume set of contributed essays provides readers with a historical context to the current struggles and attacks on Ethnic Studies by examining the various cultural and political "wars" that are making an impact on American educational systems, and how students, faculty, and communities are impacted as a result. It investigates specific cases of educational whitewashing and challenges to that whitewashing, such as Tom Horne's attack along with the State Board of Education against the Mexican American studies in the Tucson School District, the experiences of professors of color teaching Ethnic Studies in primarily white universities across the United States, and the role that student activists play in the movements for Ethnic Studies in their high schools, universities, and communities. Readers will come away with an understanding of the history of Ethnic Studies in the United States, the challenges and barriers that Ethnic Studies scholars and practitioners currently face, and the ways to advocate for the development of Ethnic Studies within formal and community-based spaces. Presents an innovative exploration of the new culture wars that address the various debates and views on Ethnic Studies that are under attack in American education, both in grades K-12 and in higher education Provides information and insights presented by outstanding editors and contributors who are influential in the field Includes case studies of Ethnic Studies at risk in higher education as well as personal narratives regarding the challenges and struggles of Ethnic Studies scholars and practitioners Suggests solutions for strengthening diverse curricula in K-12 classrooms and in higher education classrooms

Updated to include the Black Lives Matter movement, the presidency of Barack Obama, the rise of hate speech on the Internet, and more Since the publication of the first edition of Critical Race Theory in 2001, the United States has lived through two economic downturns, an outbreak of terrorism, and the onset of an epidemic of hate directed against immigrants, especially undocumented Latinos and Middle Eastern people. On a more hopeful note, the country elected and re-elected its first black president and has witnessed the impressive advance of gay rights. As a field, critical race theory has taken note of all these developments, and this primer does so as well. It not only covers a range of emerging new topics and events, it also addresses the rise of a fierce wave of criticism from right-wing websites, think tanks, and foundations, some of which insist that America is now colorblind and has little use for racial analysis and study. Critical Race Theory is essential for understanding developments in this burgeoning field, which has spread to other disciplines and countries. The new edition also covers the ways in which other societies and disciplines adapt its teachings and, for readers wanting to advance a progressive race agenda, includes new questions for discussion, aimed at outlining practical steps to achieve this objective.

Marginal People in Deviant Places revisits early- to mid-twentieth-century ethnographic studies, arguing that their focus on marginal subcultures--ranging from American hobos, to men who have sex with other men in St. Louis bathrooms, to hippies, to taxi dancers in Chicago, to elderly Jews in Venice, California--helped produce new ways of thinking about social difference more broadly in the United States. Irvine demonstrates how the social scientists who told the stories of these marginalized groups represented an early challenge to then-dominant narratives of scientific racism, prefiguring the academic fields of gender, ethnic, sexuality, and queer studies in key ways. In recounting the social histories of certain American outsiders, Irvine identifies an American paradox by which social differences are both despised and desired, and she describes the rise of an outsider capitalism that integrates difference into American society by marketing it.