Ethnic Studies

[Anonymous]

I was talking to my DD last night, & she told me one of her housemates declared an Ethnic Studies major this week. DD says that it's not an atypical major at her SLAC along with Environmental Studies, Gender Studies, etc. I think it's pretty irresponsible for adults to encourage a student to major in this topic. It seems more restrictive than typical humanities majors, such as English, because I doubt a conservative would hire someone with one of these majors. For people who know people who majored in these sorts of topics, what did they end up doing professionally? I guess I'm just shocked that these are majors, not electives.

[Anonymous]

You would be amazed at the majors offered at colleges and universities these days. Many of them are useless. But they are what the different ethnic and minority groups want. It is equitable and open minded to offer these things.

[Anonymous]

Who cares what a conservative would do. There are fewer and fewer of them. Sounds like a fascinating major. They are expanding their mind and skills and will get a job or go to grad school.

[Anonymous]

I think many large corporations and universities want professionals who can help them deal with multicultural programming, teaching related material, perhaps minority recruitment. Perhaps media outlets also want experts on such issues. Not sure...but I can imagine jobs this could lead to.

[Anonymous]

My friend majored in that. She's a graphic designer. She just majored in it because she found it interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think many large corporations and universities want professionals who can help them deal with multicultural programming, teaching related material, perhaps minority recruitment. Perhaps media outlets also want experts on such issues. Not sure...but I can imagine jobs this could lead to.

NP.

Not to mention graduate studies in fields like social work, urban planning, psychology, law, etc that would lead to other careers.

[Anonymous]

I'm white and I majored in afro-american studies and religion. I've worked as a project manager and now I'm a non-profit fundraiser. You learn the same skills as you would as an english/history/polysci major. I would encourage a student with an ethnic studies major to take a good number of quantitative classes-the major can really be as practical as you want it to be. I don't feel that it's held me back at all, and really after a few years of work no one cares about your undergrad major. Other students who were in my cohort are lawyers, in public health, a curator, and one pretty well-known author.

[Anonymous]

So....if the friend were majoring in History (of dead white people) or English (written by dead white people) or Anthropology (white people studying living non-white people) or Archaeology (white people digging up the stuff of dead non-white people) or Philosophy (written by dead white people) or Classics (works by dead white Greeks and Romans) would that be acceptable to you and your conservative strawman looking to hire someone?

Ethnic Studies can encompass all those fields and more. It's an interdisciplinary major. It's disturbing that you would assume that Ethnic Studies is somehow a major less worthy of respect than other liberal arts majors such as history, English, philosophy, classics, anthropology, or archaeology. Classes satisfying the major requirement will presumably require the same sorts of learning, studying, and demonstrating mastery of the materials than a comparable class taught in the traditional mold so prevalent in higher education until only a few decades ago -- that only things done by white men are worthy of study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So....if the friend were majoring in History (of dead white people) or English (written by dead white people) or Anthropology (white people studying living non-white people) or Archaeology (white people digging up the stuff of dead non-white people) or Philosophy (written by dead white people) or Classics (works by dead white Greeks and Romans) would that be acceptable to you and your conservative strawman looking to hire someone?

Ethnic Studies can encompass all those fields and more. It's an interdisciplinary major. It's disturbing that you would assume that Ethnic Studies is somehow a major less worthy of respect than other liberal arts majors such as history, English, philosophy, classics, anthropology, or archaeology. Classes satisfying the major requirement will presumably require the same sorts of learning, studying, and demonstrating mastery of the materials than a comparable class taught in the traditional mold so prevalent in higher education until only a few decades ago -- that only things done by white men are worthy of study.

Not the OP - History is fine if Law School is the goal, the rest of the majors to me are comparable to Ethnic studies and I wouldn't encourage any kid to major in them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You would be amazed at the majors offered at colleges and universities these days. Many of them are useless. But they are what the different ethnic and minority groups want. It is equitable and open minded to offer these things.

No, it’s greedy and stupid. The inmates are runnnng the asylums

[Anonymous]

Most people don’t end up working in their majors. There are tons of engineer majors who wash out. There are tons of lawyers in this country working his paralegals because there are so many of them out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So....if the friend were majoring in History (of dead white people) or English (written by dead white people) or Anthropology (white people studying living non-white people) or Archaeology (white people digging up the stuff of dead non-white people) or Philosophy (written by dead white people) or Classics (works by dead white Greeks and Romans) would that be acceptable to you and your conservative strawman looking to hire someone?

Ethnic Studies can encompass all those fields and more. It's an interdisciplinary major. It's disturbing that you would assume that Ethnic Studies is somehow a major less worthy of respect than other liberal arts majors such as history, English, philosophy, classics, anthropology, or archaeology. Classes satisfying the major requirement will presumably require the same sorts of learning, studying, and demonstrating mastery of the materials than a comparable class taught in the traditional mold so prevalent in higher education until only a few decades ago -- that only things done by white men are worthy of study.

Not the OP - History is fine if Law School is the goal, the rest of the majors to me are comparable to Ethnic studies and I wouldn't encourage any kid to major in them.

OR...History is fine if you want to understand history, be an informed civilian, vote intelligently and responsibly, understand what's going on in the world, understand why things are the way things are, understand people and human motivation, do no harm, do good, be a good conversationalist, be employable in any number of ways, get a graduate degree, etc etc.

[Anonymous]

Colleges are not preparing kids for the real world anymore. My DD has discovered that as she's due to graduate in a few months with no marketable skills. She was locked out of any practical class (reserved for those in the major) so was stuck with BS electives. We are encouraging her to take some certification courses (on our dime) to make herself more attractive to employers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So....if the friend were majoring in History (of dead white people) or English (written by dead white people) or Anthropology (white people studying living non-white people) or Archaeology (white people digging up the stuff of dead non-white people) or Philosophy (written by dead white people) or Classics (works by dead white Greeks and Romans) would that be acceptable to you and your conservative strawman looking to hire someone?

Ethnic Studies can encompass all those fields and more. It's an interdisciplinary major. It's disturbing that you would assume that Ethnic Studies is somehow a major less worthy of respect than other liberal arts majors such as history, English, philosophy, classics, anthropology, or archaeology. Classes satisfying the major requirement will presumably require the same sorts of learning, studying, and demonstrating mastery of the materials than a comparable class taught in the traditional mold so prevalent in higher education until only a few decades ago -- that only things done by white men are worthy of study.

Not the OP - History is fine if Law School is the goal, the rest of the majors to me are comparable to Ethnic studies and I wouldn't encourage any kid to major in them.

We know Ethics is not good if Law School is the goal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was talking to my DD last night, & she told me one of her housemates declared an Ethnic Studies major this week. DD says that it's not an atypical major at her SLAC along with Environmental Studies, Gender Studies, etc. I think it's pretty irresponsible for adults to encourage a student to major in this topic. It seems more restrictive than typical humanities majors, such as English, because I doubt a conservative would hire someone with one of these majors. For people who know people who majored in these sorts of topics, what did they end up doing professionally? I guess I'm just shocked that these are majors, not electives.

There is a lot to unpack here, LOL.

Students *are* adults. My kids choose their own majors. They are responsible for how they do in school, and for becoming employable (or self-sustaining) after graduation. If their choice of major is a poor one, that's on them.

If my kid's choice of major will cause a conservative not to hire him, again, that's on him. Knowing my DC (who is active in her school Democrats, feminists, and socialists organizations), I imagine working for a conservative who would ding her for working for these causes would not concern her at all. If that were the case, she would want to find a way to work against that person and not for him.

Liberal arts majors do all kinds of things professionally. I know a young man who was a peace studies major and who holds a pretty high position (for his age/experience) at a non-profit. People go to grad school, professional school, work at NGOs, non-profits, the list goes on.