UNDERGRADUATE, GRADUATE AND FACULTY COALITION FOR ETHNIC STUDIES | MICHIGAN IN COLOR

On Monday, April 11, more than 

100 students and faculty members 
gathered 
in 
the 
Michigan 

League for The Future of Ethnic 
Studies, 
a 
teach-in 
organized 

by a broad coalition of graduate 
and undergraduate students at 
the University of Michigan. The 
goals of the event were to develop 
interest and investment in ethnic 
studies across the University and 
to build structures of collaboration 
and coalition among graduate 
students, 
undergraduates 
and 

faculty of color. We organized this 
event to encourage the growth 
of ethnic studies programs and 
demonstrate to the University 
administration that there is a need 
for these units to secure more 
resources, especially in light of 
the University President Mark 
Schlissel’s diversity, equity and 
inclusion initiatives.

Ethnic studies programs across 

the country are experiencing a 
moment of crisis and opportunity. 
We see these crises manifesting 
from 
San 
Francisco 
State 

University, where the first ethnic 
studies programs were founded 
and where the administration is 
threatening devastating cuts to its 
budget, to here at the University of 
Michigan, where the slow attrition 
of faculty of color and ethnic 
studies faculty constitutes its own 
crisis. At the same time, college 
campuses in the past year, from 
Yale to Mizzou, have mobilized 
en masse to make their demands 
for racial justice heard. As the 
University designs its plan for 
diversity, equity and inclusion, we 
need to ensure that the histories, 
cultures and communities that 
make this campus diverse remain 
a central feature of the curriculum.

The event on Monday was the 

product of several years of faculty 
and student activism. This vision 
for this event is shaped by the 
graduate students in the Asian/
Pacific Islander American Studies 
Program in the department of 
American Culture. In the past few 
years, seven faculty members have 
left the A/PIA Studies Program, 
and only two faculty have been 
hired by the department. There 
has been one graduate course 
offered in A/PIA studies since 
2013, and no graduate instructor 
positions for classes in A/PIA 
studies. Undergraduate enrollment 
in the program has also dropped 
dramatically in the last five years. 
However, these problems are not 

unique to A/PIA Studies.

This university does not support 

ethnic studies but asks for our units 
to do the labor of educating a largely 
white and affluent student body of 
issues on race and ethnicity. The 
lack of support for ethnic studies 
is apparent both inside and outside 
the classroom — faculty of color are 
departing this institution in droves; 
graduate students are continuously 
invalidated by their departments 
if their work addresses issues of 
race, gender, sexuality and ability; 
and undergraduates are left to deal 
with a campus climate that allows 
for racist parties to be thrown by 
fraternities and for public spaces to 
be chalked with messages of hate. 
The macro and the micro cannot be 
separated. The lack of institutional 
support for classes that address 
issues of difference and identity 
is reflected in the interactions 
between students and faculty that 
leave people of color fearful and 
tired of every-day acts of racism.

This is not the first time students 

have gathered out of concern for 
ethnic studies. In 2008, graduate 
and 
undergraduate 
students 

organized the Campus Lockdown 
teach-in, 
an 
event 
protesting 

the lack of institutional support 
for recruiting and retaining a 
critical number of faculty in 
ethnic studies, women’s studies 
and other departments. The 400 
attendees of the event brought to 
the University’s attention that only 
three percent of faculty are women 
of color, and many of these few 
faculty were forced to continue 
teaching 
at 
other 
institutions 

because they were not supported 
by the University. The organizers 
of The Future of Ethnic Studies 
teach-in follow the footsteps of 
the 2008 coalition in our push for 
more resources to support faculty 
and students of color at this 
institution.

Our framing around the future of 

ethnic studies is intentional. While 
ethnic studies programs around 
the country are being cut and 
reorganized, our goals are not just 
to defend ethnic studies programs 
from institutional attack, but also 
to push ethnic studies beyond its 
current boundaries to transform 
and grow. Rather than simply 
respond to crises in the University 
by advocating for a return to what 
once was, we can put forward our 
own visions of what ethnic studies 
could be. What would ethnic 
studies look like if we imagined 

different forms of relation beyond 
the “food group” model that keeps 
African 
American, 
Arab 
and 

Muslim American, Asian/Pacific 
Islander American, Latino/a and 
Native American studies in our 
own departments and programs? 
How 
might 
ethnic 
studies 

challenge divisions between the 
classroom and the community 
to cultivate ethical practices of 
community engagement? Or help 
us develop the tools to fight for 
racial, gender and economic justice 
in and beyond the University?

The 
University’s 
plan 
for 

diversity, equity and inclusion 
is a moment of opportunity. 
However, we can’t let the terms 
of this conversation be confined 
and defined by the administration 
as 
a 
push 
for 
multicultural 

inclusion 
rather 
than 
racial 

justice. The current framing of the 
conversation on diversity, equity 
and inclusion is to include more 
people of color without radically 
transforming 
the 
exclusionary 

ways in which this institution is 
already run. As Barbara Ransby 
reminded us during the Speak 
Out for Racial Justice in 2014, 
“If we’re going to embrace the 
notion of diversity, it has to be one 
that is contextualized and that is 
unapologetically political. We can 
have a Baskin-Robbins, pick your 
favorite flavor of diversity, which is 
cosmetic and decorative, or we can 
have a version of diversity that says 
inclusion is based on the history of 
exclusion and oppression.”

What would it mean for us in 

ethnic studies to reframe the 
conversation on diversity, equity 
and inclusion to be a conversation 
about racial justice? In other 
words, how can we call into 
being a university that challenges 
injustice in its own structure and 
in its surrounding communities? 
A university that is responsible to 
Aura Rosser, who was murdered by 
the Ann Arbor Police Department, 
a university that is responsible to 
the residents of Flint, who have 
been abandoned by the state, a 
university that is responsible to 
the surveilled communities in 
Dearborn, a university that is 
responsible to the communities 
whose land this institution is 
built on and a university that 
is responsible to the students, 
faculty, staff and workers upon 
whose 
labor 
this 
institution 

thrives?

5
OPINION

Thursday, May 12, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

The future of ethnic studies

O

ne of my best friends 
on 
campus 
is 
from 

Pennsylvania, and every 

once in a while 
we 
get 
into 

a 
repetitive 

debate 
over 

the 
relative 

importance of the states. In my 
view as a lifelong Michigander, 
the natural beauty and industrial 
prowess of Michigan puts it pretty 
high on my list of notable states. 
However, for my out-of-state 
friend, it usually falls somewhere 
in the bottom half of the states, 
usually 
somewhere 
between 

Delaware and Wisconsin. Even 
though this debate has been 
raging for the entire year, we 
still have our own perceptions 
about the state in which we both 
currently go to school.

The problem with this isn’t that 

my friend and I disagree over the 
ranking of the states. The problem 
comes from our knowledge of 
Michigan. I have spent 19 years 
on this peninsula, and have been 
everywhere from the streets and 
skyscrapers of Detroit to the 
mighty Mackinac Bridge that 
crosses into the Upper Peninsula. 
On the other hand, many non-
Michigan natives drop out of 
the sky at Detroit Metropolitan 
Airport, shoot straight across 
Wayne and Washtenaw Counties 
on I-94, and never — save for an 
occasional trip to the Ypsilanti 
Meijer — leave the city of Ann 
Arbor.

This is a huge problem, as 

it perpetuates many negative 
narratives about Michigan among 
our student body. I’ve heard 
students at the University of 
Michigan criticize every part of 
this state. Be it false statements 
about violence in Detroit or cruel 
jokes about the water crisis in 
Flint, everything seems to be 
on the table for criticism from 
students, many of whom have no 
experience outside of Ann Arbor.

Our university, the University 

of 
Michigan, 
doesn’t 
simply 

bear the name of this great state 
for 
merchandising 
purposes. 

This great academic institution 
was built on the backs of many 
Michiganders spanning all the 
way back to 1817. The tax dollars 
of Michigan residents fund the 
University and have done so for 
almost two centuries. While some 
may argue that the existence of 
high out-of-state tuition rates 
justify 
any 
misunderstanding 

of the University that may exist, 
I hope that any student at this 
school can understand exactly 
what Michigan means. It’s not 
just saying “Go Blue” and hailing 
to the victors, but also knowing 
“Michigan, My Michigan” and 
seeking a pleasant peninsula by 
looking about us.

I hope that students at this 

fine educational institution can 
get the chance and opportunity 
to learn more about the state 
of Michigan in a positive way. 
Whether it’s biking through the 
streets of Detroit, camping on 
the beaches of Lake Michigan or 
even taking a horseback tour of 
Mackinac Island, summer brings 
a lot of chances for students to get 
out of Ann Arbor and into the rest 
of Michigan.

There is a notion that two 

drastically different versions of 
Michigan currently exist. The 
Michigan I know and love is a 
great state, a state that built the 
nation and a state that provides 
for this University. In order for 
us to reconcile my Michigan 
with the notion of a rusted-out 
wasteland, commonly held by 
inexperienced Michiganders, we 
must experience the greatness of 
this state.

So the next time I hear 

someone talking about the Upper 
Peninsula or Detroit in a bad way, 
I’ll challenge them to experience 
Michigan like a true Michigander, 
not just a flyby student.

—Kevin Sweitzer can be 

reached at ksweitz@umich.edu.

Say nice things about 

Michigan

KEVIN 
SWEITZER

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