While there is no fixed canon to Ethnic Studies, some scholars have offered frameworks that can be used to describe the scope and significance of the field. Tolteka Cuahutin (2019) offers us the idea of four geohistorical macroscales of Ethnic Studies:
Indigeneity and Active Roots mean beginning with and centering the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous peoples. It also means providing students and educators with the tools to critically understand the relationships we have as people in this world with our ancestors, the land, and the historical realities that come to bear on our lives. Second, coloniality, dehumanization, and genocide is the first component of actively recognizing those historical and current-day political realities. In Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\), the image shows an activist sign with the phrase, "No History, No Self," written in red and black. This sign was used at a protest in support of students on a hunger strike for Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University in 2016. The message emphasizes the way that Ethnic Studies as a discipline benefits students by connecting to the true and authentic histories of race, Indigeneity, and culture.
Ethnic Studies is critical because it opens the door to recognizing and understanding these aspects of society and culture that are often diminished or hidden. This brings us to the third geohistorical macroscale of Ethnic Studies, which is hegemony and normalization. Hegemony refers to the systems by which violence and exploitation are maintained in regular patterns to advantage socially dominant groups and maintain the oppression of Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities, including women and non-binary people, as well as people of diverse faiths, abilities, and immigration statuses. Finally, Ethnic Studies goes beyond revealing and examining violence and pain to bring students and education into the work of transformation, resistance, and social change. This means that Ethnic Studies is always political, always evolving, and intimately connected to social movements, grassroots activism, and advocacy for change.
