Center for Ethnic Studies discusses ethnicity, looks to help students understand their identity

Amani Bayo
Tue, 08 Nov 2022 00:52:44 +0000
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Hoping to better understand what an ethnical identity can mean, the Center of Ethnic Studies within the Humanities Institute hosted a panel for students. Credit: Amani Bayo | Lantern Reporter

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “ethnicity” defines groups of people classified into common racial, tribal, religious, linguistic or cultural backgrounds. Yet, many students have found this definition to be narrow and troubling in their own experiences.

Leila Vieira, associate director for the Center of Ethnic Studies within the Humanities Institute, hosted the panel “Who Am I? What is ‘Ethnicity’ Anyway” to address students’ questions and expand on the discussion surrounding what it means to have an ethnic identity. Vieira was joined by three directors affiliated with the Center for Ethnic Studies.?

Vieira said the pilot event invited students to share their struggles with identity and was intended to start a conversation beyond the Humanities Institute.

“If we have people in STEM, how can we dialogue, collaborate with them or is it just a humanities issue?” Vieira said.

Pranav Jani, program director of Asian American Studies and one of the panelists, said students find the definition of ethnicity troubling. He said students are often left to choose one of the assigned choices — none of which are entirely representative of their identity.

“Race is, kind of, geographical origins of your people,” Jani said. “This is how the census operates, and then ethnicity is culture, religion, customs, food. The more we look at that division, the more it starts to collapse because race is really more about racialization.”

Yukina Sato, a master’s student in dance, said she sought to understand how the label “ethnic” indicates the false notion that there are also people who are “non-ethnic.”

Sato said being ethnic has more to do with intersecting cultures and practices dispersed across the globe rather than a rigid categorization of skin color, religion or language.?

“We’re trying to understand overlaps,” Sato said. “My question is how we open the conversation with that understanding that you come in one self, but you’re also part of many groups of people.”

Jani said the distinction between how parts of the world define who belongs to a certain ethnic group and how a person sees themselves is the reason many struggle with their identity.??

“The question of ‘Am I ethnic?’ comes from regardless of how I see myself, the world is seeing me in certain ways because they’re putting together certain skin tones,” Jani said.

Paloma Martinez-Cruz, a panelist and program director for Latina/o Studies, said people may find ethnicity conflicting because physical similarities aren’t always consistent with geographic similarities. She said, for example, Latin Americans are often grouped into one ethnicity based on region, yet Latino communities differ greatly in physical characteristics, language and cultural practices.?

“There’s no Latin America on the map,” Martinez-Cruz said. “Any given day, one aspect of your identity might feel more present than the other.”

Ruth Elendu, a fourth-year in Middle Eastern and African Studies, said she struggled in developing her identity based on the ethnicity she was told she belonged to.?

“I feel like I always grew up seeing my identity, and my ethnicity and how I view myself as this one-straight-path road, and because I didn’t follow that straight-path road, I couldn’t own it,” Elendu said. “But knowing that it’s very open-ended, and it’s very broad and always changes makes my experience more valid.”

Elendu said attending the panel made her realize many students had the same questions about their identity and that all students should feel encouraged to explore their own ethnicities beyond what they have been told.

“It’s resonated so much with me, like, how I see myself and how do other people see me, and that’s how that’s shaped how I perceive my own ethnicity,” Elendu said.

Martinez-Cruz said ethnicity is an expansive way for students to better understand themselves and appreciate the overlaps in identities with other groups. She said by understanding how some ethnicities are not far removed from others, people can stand in solidarity with different groups.?

“We’re all so many things, we can have many ethnicities,” Martinez-Cruz said. “Every time we expand our consciousness, we have impact.”