Charge to the Ethnic Studies Graduates of 2008

This past May (2008), I was asked to deliver the charge to the graduates of the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Here is a copy of the speech that I gave...

As I was thinking about what to say here today, what to say about this Department and what it has meant to me over the years, a few words came to mind—community, family, and home. When I first applied to University of Colorado a little over five years ago, I never imagined that I would be here today. Ethnic Studies was a foreign concept, and I had no idea that it even existed. When I was asked to identify my intended major, I looked over the large list of possibilities and thought about what subject I excelled most in. I knew that Language Arts was probably my strongest subject and decided that anything that had to do with math or science was totally out of the question. So I skimmed the list of majors and stumbled upon English Literature, what I thought was the perfect fit.

If I had only looked down a little further on the list, I would have saved myself about three years of grief and just declared Ethnic Studies as my major from the get go. But I guess that’s what college is all about, making mistakes and learning from them. I officially declared Ethnic Studies as my second major at the end of my freshman year. It took me another two years to drop the English Lit major and realize that the English Department and I were not as compatible as I once thought. I tried so hard to make it work, and I held on to that English major because for some reason I thought that reading all those dead white guys legitimized me in some way. I had bought in to the myth that Ethnic Studies was not a real major and that I wouldn’t be taken seriously if that were the only degree that I graduated with.

Today, I recognize that myth for what it truly is—an attempt by the oppressive power structure of the academy to delegitimize and discredit the scholarship and pedagogy of Ethnic Studies, which (according to Goal 8 listed on our Department website) works “to empower students to move beyond being objects of study towards being subjects of their own social realities, with a voice of their own.” Enabling our subjectivity and cultivating our personal voices can be threatening to those who attempt to maintain the same old version of history that is used to indoctrinate us in high school. The version of history that excludes, silences, and erases the queer, the woman, the working-class, the person of color.

But that is why I love this department, the staff, and the faculty. They provide us the means to find our voices, articulate our oppressions, and resist our erasure within the dominant discourses of the academy. However Ethnic Studies does far more than that, it also encourages us to explore how we participate in the oppression of others and it inspires us to resist and fight for change. It is easy to recognize one’s own personal oppression, but it takes courage and humility to see how our own oppression is linked and connected to the oppression of others. Social justice isn’t just fighting for our own rights; it is working to dismantle and destroy the hegemonic power structures from which we benefit, from which we are granted preference and privilege. Like Benito Juárez said, “Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz," “Among individuals, just as among nations, the respect for the rights of others is peace.”

So what does Ethnic Studies mean to me? It is the place on this campus that I call home. It is where I retreat to when I feel weak and powerless. It is the place from where I emerge rejuvenated and ready to face the racism, sexism, and homophobia of this campus. It is where I know I can count on being welcomed and treated like familia, family. It is a source of my strength, determination, and passion. It is where I developed my political consciousness and adopted my oppositional spirit of resistance. Ethnic Studies is the reason why I am standing before you today, the reason why I decided to remain at CU.

So to all of the graduates, I want to leave you with these final thoughts. Today marks only the first step in the journeys and travels that lay ahead of us. And quoting bell hooks, “To travel, [we] must always move through fear, confront terror.” But we need not be afraid. Our education and this Department have prepared us with the tools necessary to navigate that fear and confront that terror. Education is power, and I truly believe that. We have all benefited immensely from this power and we should want to share it with others. Empowerment that remains within the self, means nothing unless it can be released and touch the lives of others. So I encourage you, Ethnic Studies Graduates of 2008, traverse through the fear, confront the terror, and with a raised fist of resistance and a heart filled with a revolutionary love continue to fight to make this campus, this country, this world a more just and equitable place.